A Close Look at the Verbiest Map

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Ferdinand Verbiest, A Complete Map of the World, 1674. Ink on paper, eight scrolls, 217 × 54 cm. Library of Congress.
Ferdinand Verbiest, Kun yu quan tu, 1674. Ink on paper, eight scrolls, 217 × 54 cm. Library of Congress.

A detailed look at the Verbiest Map from the University of Michigan’s Clements Library. Also known as the Kun yu quan tu (坤輿全圖), this is a 1674 Chinese-language map of the world by Jesuit priest Ferdinand Verbiest during his time in China. The Library holds one of 20 remaining copies of the map; another, held by the Library of Congress, was (along with Matteo Ricci’s 1602 map) the subject of the China at the Center exhibition in 2016. An interactive version of the Verbiest map that translates the Chinese text into English was part of that exhibition, but I hadn’t seen it before now.

Previously: China at the Center; The WSJ Reviews China at the Center.