1683 La Chine
DESCRIPTION
A compact late 17th-century map of China, originally engraved by Alain Manesson Mallet for his influential Description de l’Univers, published in Paris, 1683, this example represents a scarce variant of Mallet’s map of China. It appears to have been reissued for a German-language publication and distinguished by the added figure numbering “Fig. XII und XIII” in the top margin rather than the standard French atlas title format.
Despite its small format, the map presents a structured view of the Chinese empire, delineating provincial divisions, major cities such as Peking, Nanking, and Canton, and the surrounding regions of Tartary, Korea, Formosa, Japan, and the Philippines. Its vertical orientation emphasizes China’s north–south extent and situates the country within a broader East Asian maritime world.
One of the map’s most striking features is the clear depiction of the Great Wall of China, shown as a continuous barrier along the northern frontier separating China from Tartary. This prominent representation reflects European fascination with the wall as both a physical structure and a symbolic boundary of empire. Coastal waters, islands, and principal rivers are carefully rendered, underscoring the importance of trade routes and navigation in European geographic understanding of the region.
The map also preserves several fictitious inland lakes, including a large lake at the far western edge of China, which were commonly used by early European cartographers to explain the sources and branching of Asia’s major river systems. These imagined bodies of water reflect attempts to reconcile limited information about the interior with observed river deltas that ultimately originate in the Himalayan mountain region.
CONDITION
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