[Important atlas of China]

ANVILLE, Jean Baptiste B. D'.
Nouvel Atlas de la Chine, de la Tartarie Chinoise, et du Thibet: Contenant Les Cartes générales & particulieres de ces Pays, ainsi que la Carte du Royaume de Coree; La Plupart levées sur les lieux par ordre de l'Empereur Cang-Hi avec toute l'exactitude imaginable, soit par les PP. Jésuites Missionnaires à la Chine... Amsterdam, Barthelemy Ulam, 1785. Folio, original full calf gilt, rebacked with original spine, contemporary marbled endpapers with some wear; pp. 12 (title, Avertissement & Relation de la Boucharie), 42 maps as called for (13 double-page, 29 folding.
A detailed antique atlas of China's provinces, originally published to accompany Pere J.B. du Halde's "Description géographique, historique, chronologique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine", important as the first set of new maps of China since the Blaeu/Martini atlas of 1654. The maps were a great improvement as triangulation was used by the Jesuit missionaries who undertook the survey between 1708-16 for the Emperor Kang-Shi. Also of importance is the new mapping of surrounding countries, including the first European maps specifically of Korea & Bhutan, & the first detailed survey of Tibet, published here as a ten-sheet map. The description of "Boucharie" (Bokhara) was written by the Swede Johan Gustaf Renat. Captured by the Russians during the 'Great Northern War, Renat took service in the Russian army in preference to being a prisoner of war in Siberia. He joined an expedition to Bokhara but was captured by the Kalmyk Mongols, changed sides again, becoming a military and cultural advisor to the Kalmyks, introducing moveable type to local printers.
[Ref: 12594]