Connected Cartographies : World Geography and the Sino-Western Translation of Knowledge, 1580-1842

This essential history tells the fascinating story of encounters between Chinese and Western traditions of world geography and cartography. It reveals how cross-cultural exchanges shaped our understanding of the world, enriches global perspectives and highlights the importance of collaboration in knowledge creation.

In the ''Age of Discovery'', explorers brought a wealth of information about new and strange lands from across the oceans. Yet, even as the Americas appeared on new world maps, China remained a cartographic mystery. How was the puzzle of China''s geography unravelled? Connected Cartographies demonstrates that knowledge about China was generated differently, not through exploration but through a fascinating bi-directional cross-cultural exchange of knowledge. Florin-Stefan Morar shows that interactions between Chinese and Western cartographic traditions led to the creation of a new genre of maps that incorporated features from both. This genre included works by renowned cartographers such as Abraham Ortelius and Matteo Ricci and other less-known works, ''black tulips of cartography,'' hidden in special collections. Morar builds upon original sources in multiple languages from archives across three continents, producing a pioneering reconstruction of Sino-Western cartographic exchanges that shaped the modern world map and our shared global perspective.