The first map of China printed in Europe

WÄLDSEEMÜLLER, Martin.

[Ta. Superioris Indiae et Tartariae Maioris.]
Strasbourg, Johannes Grüninger & Anton Koberger, 1525. Woodcut, trapezoid, printed area (at most) 290 x 460mm.

Trimmed into printed border lower right.

A very important map of China, being the first 'modern' map of the area, covering China, Tibet, Tartary and Japan, published in Wäldseemüller's smaller format edition of Ptolemy's 'Geographia'. Unlike most of the other maps, it was not a reduction of the 1513 edition but a completely new map, prepared for a new 'Chronica mundi' being written by Wäldseemüller which was abandoned after his death.
Wäldseemüller has expanded the Ptolemaic map by adding information on Tartary and Japan gleaned from the accounts of Marco Polo. Japan is a large island called Zipangri, a name derived from the Chinese 'Land of the Rising Sun', which Polo learned about from the Chinese. The first recorded European visit to Japan was not until the landing of the Portuguese Alvarado in Okinawa, 1542.
First issued in 1522, this second edition has the title, as above, on the reverse, with a descriptive text in Latin, with woodcut columns and an astronomical diagram.

MAPFORUM.COM 8; WALTER 'Japan, A Cartographic Vision', No.3.
Stock ID : 20051