Videos by Marco Caboara
A presentation (in English and Chinese) of my monograph about Western Printed Maps of China, 1584... more A presentation (in English and Chinese) of my monograph about Western Printed Maps of China, 1584-1735, to be published by Brill on October 13, 2022.
I give an overview of the principles of Cartobibliography, show sample entries from the book, then introduce the main map trees and discuss some unique maps.
Delivered (online) on June 23 2022, as part of the lecture series on the history of cartography sponsored by the Guangqi International Center for Scholars 光启国际学者中心
Shanghai Normal University 101 views
Videos by Marco Caboara
Mapping East Asia in Context, HKUST Library , 2023
Some printed maps of China were distributed in thousands of copies over many decades, others wer... more Some printed maps of China were distributed in thousands of copies over many decades, others were clearly meant for a restricted audience and survive in one or two examples. I will discuss the different strategies used by mapmakers, their motivations and publishing venues and their change over time, focusing on two main entities: the Society of Jesus and Dutch mainstream printers and publishers.
Rui Cunha Foundation, 2024
In this talk, the speaker will refer to the mutual influence of European and Western maps in the ... more In this talk, the speaker will refer to the mutual influence of European and Western maps in the creation of the first European maps of China and of the first Chinese world maps, focusing on the 1602 Ricci map. The author will introduce his monograph “Regnum Chinae: The Printed Western Maps of China to 1735”, recently published by Brill, as well as recent research by him and others, reflected in the volume “Remapping the World from East Asia: Towards a Global History of the ‘Ricci Maps’”, published by University of Hawaii Press in February 2024.
Monographs by Marco Caboara
Brill, 2022
This is the first comprehensive study of Western printed maps of China until 1735.
The first E... more This is the first comprehensive study of Western printed maps of China until 1735.
The first European map of China faintly relied on the copy of a Chinese original, obtained through bribing and espionage; the last covered in this book was the result of the largest land survey ever made until that time. These two and another 125 maps depict, sometimes uniquely, sometimes copying each other, a country whose images were so different that it was hard to understand which to trust.
This study reproduces and describes, for the first time, all the maps of China printed in Europe between 1584 and 1735, unravelling the origin of each individual map, their different printing, issues and publication dates. It also tells, for each, the unique story that made possible these visions from another world, stories marked by scholarly breakthroughs, obsession, missionary zeal, commercial sagacity and greed.
Cartography Papers by Marco Caboara
Arts of Asia , 2023
Presentation and conceptual background of the map exhibition "China in Maps: 500 Years of Evolvin... more Presentation and conceptual background of the map exhibition "China in Maps: 500 Years of Evolving Images", Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library, September 28, 2023 – June 7, 2024
https://library.hkust.edu.hk/exhibitions/china-in-maps/
Alexandra Curvelo, Angelo Cattaneo and Rui Lourido (eds), A China vista da Europa - séculos XVI-XIX | Coleções da Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisbon: Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, pp. 33-41., 2023
Martijn Storms (ed.), Maps That Made History, 1000 Years of World History in 100 Old Maps, 2022
This anonymous manuscript map illustrates the first popular Chinese account of Xinjiang, a Centra... more This anonymous manuscript map illustrates the first popular Chinese account of Xinjiang, a Central Asian region conquered by the Qing in 1759 and incorporated as the northwestern corner of its territory. It is one of the first visualizations for Chinese readers of this region, which was portrayed as a new entity: remote, dangerous, and exotic, yet a proud and promising addition to the empire. The book and the accompanying map describe imposing natural features such as mountain ranges, deserts, and oases, which on the map are shown pictorially and in vivid colors. They associate these features with marks of civilization such as the Jiayu Pass at the western end of the Great Wall, the mythical sources of the Yellow River, and the two main roads connecting the caravan cities and the frontier outposts north and south of the Tianshan mountains. As with most Chinese maps, a rich textual layer provides extra information about the distances connecting the cities with each other and with China, about fertile fields and large marshes, and about the borders of the region with Russia, India, and the Kazakh and Kirghiz hordes.
Geotema, 2023
Michele Ruggieri SJ (1543-1607) represents a key-figure in the framework of the encounter between... more Michele Ruggieri SJ (1543-1607) represents a key-figure in the framework of the encounter between East and West during
the Modern Age. Once back in Italy (1588) after several years he had spent in China, he used his knowledge of Chinese
language and the Chinese cartographical sources he had collected there to publish for the European audience an atlas
of the Ming Empire. Unfortunately for him, the atlas remained a manuscript and unrevised proof, now conserved in
the State Archives of Rome. New elements regarding the cartographic work by Ruggieri are related to the recent discovery
of a map linked to the Italian missionary, published at a small scale and ignored so far, entitled Sinarum Regni
alioru[m]q[ue] regnoru[m] et insularu[m] illi adiacentium descriptio. This copperplate-printed map, devoided of
any indication about the cartographer, the printer, the place or the date of publication, was at first published and discussed
in 2003 in a catalogue of the collection of the historical maps of China belonging to the Hong Kong University of Science
and Technology; later, a second copy was found at ARSI (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu) in Rome, annexed to
a manuscript by Ruggieri. Sinarum Regni (…) descriptio must be considered the oldest Jesuit map of China, probably
printed in Rome prior to the elaboration, by the Italian missionary, of the manuscript of the atlas of China. The paper
critically compares Sinarum Regni (…) descriptio with the manuscript atlas, underlining analogies and differences.
Paula van Gestel (ed.) Atlas Amicorum Peter van der Krogt. Leiden: Brill, pp. 289-302., 2022
Mario Cams and Elke Papelitzky (eds.) Remapping the World from East Asia: Towards a Global History of the “Ricci Map. University of Hawai’i Press, 2024
Changing images of China and Central Asia from Marco Polo to the Enlightenment
The talk will des... more Changing images of China and Central Asia from Marco Polo to the Enlightenment
The talk will describe a selection of the unique library’s Special Collection of printed hand-colored maps of China and Asia now exhibited on the KPS gallery on the library’s first floor. It will show how European maps from 1500 to 1750 represented China and “Tartary”, the part of Asia originally dominated by the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan, starting from Marco Polo’s trip in 1280 and reaching the era of scientific cartography of the 1700s. It will describe different styles of maps and their striking visual features (sea monsters, fantastic city views, comic book-like illustrations).
About the Guided Tour:
Dr CABOARA will introduce the unique hand colored maps and antique books f... more About the Guided Tour:
Dr CABOARA will introduce the unique hand colored maps and antique books from the Library Special Collections now on display in KPS Gallery. These maps offer different stunning visions of China and Central Asia spanning three hundred years of European cartography (15th to 18th centuries). Dr CABOARA will tell the story of why China was known as “Tartary” and will also highlight the historical background and some of the special features and graphics of several maps that are representative of the period.
Orientations, 2021
Historical context and physical characteristics of a 1820 Chinese map of the world
This presentation introduces the previously unstudied 1642 printed map of China and East Asia by ... more This presentation introduces the previously unstudied 1642 printed map of China and East Asia by Giangolini and a previously unknown and untitled 1651 manuscript map exactly showing the same area held at the Jesuit Archives in Rome
“广州与清代中外文化交流”国际学术会议 International Conference on Guangzhou and Sino-Western Cultural Relations in Qing Dynasty, 2019
I will first present the most valuable map in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ... more I will first present the most valuable map in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) collection, “Sinarum Regni aliorumque regnorum et insularum illi adiacentium description” (Map of the Kingdom of China and of some neighboring Kingdoms and Islands). I will discuss its debated dating between 1583 and 1593, its inclusion in a report written by Michele Ruggeri held at the Jesuit Archives in Rome and its relationship to Ortelius 1584 map of China.
Then I will introduce a related maps, a 1651 manuscript map of East Asia held at the Jesuit archives, by an unknown Jesuit cartographer, based on a lost model of 1593.
http://islamicartdoha.org/
Encompassing the Eastern Periphery of the Muslim World“ The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art, 2019
East Asia and the Persian Gulf have been connected, since Late Antiquity, by trade routes passing... more East Asia and the Persian Gulf have been connected, since Late Antiquity, by trade routes passing through the Central Islamic Lands and the Indian Ocean. This presentation showcases the most prominent cartographic depictions of these routes produced between the 12th and the 17th century in China, Korea, Japan and Thailand.
Cartography of Eastern Central Asia
from the 16th to the 18th century
in the Antique Maps of Ch... more Cartography of Eastern Central Asia
from the 16th to the 18th century
in the Antique Maps of China collection,
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (UST)
Imago Mundi Vol. 71, Part 2: 114, 2019
The CrossRef database (www.crossref.org/) has been used to validate the references. Changes resul... more The CrossRef database (www.crossref.org/) has been used to validate the references. Changes resulting from mismatches are tracked in red font.
Uploads
Videos by Marco Caboara
I give an overview of the principles of Cartobibliography, show sample entries from the book, then introduce the main map trees and discuss some unique maps.
Delivered (online) on June 23 2022, as part of the lecture series on the history of cartography sponsored by the Guangqi International Center for Scholars 光启国际学者中心
Shanghai Normal University
Videos by Marco Caboara
Monographs by Marco Caboara
The first European map of China faintly relied on the copy of a Chinese original, obtained through bribing and espionage; the last covered in this book was the result of the largest land survey ever made until that time. These two and another 125 maps depict, sometimes uniquely, sometimes copying each other, a country whose images were so different that it was hard to understand which to trust.
This study reproduces and describes, for the first time, all the maps of China printed in Europe between 1584 and 1735, unravelling the origin of each individual map, their different printing, issues and publication dates. It also tells, for each, the unique story that made possible these visions from another world, stories marked by scholarly breakthroughs, obsession, missionary zeal, commercial sagacity and greed.
Cartography Papers by Marco Caboara
https://library.hkust.edu.hk/exhibitions/china-in-maps/
the Modern Age. Once back in Italy (1588) after several years he had spent in China, he used his knowledge of Chinese
language and the Chinese cartographical sources he had collected there to publish for the European audience an atlas
of the Ming Empire. Unfortunately for him, the atlas remained a manuscript and unrevised proof, now conserved in
the State Archives of Rome. New elements regarding the cartographic work by Ruggieri are related to the recent discovery
of a map linked to the Italian missionary, published at a small scale and ignored so far, entitled Sinarum Regni
alioru[m]q[ue] regnoru[m] et insularu[m] illi adiacentium descriptio. This copperplate-printed map, devoided of
any indication about the cartographer, the printer, the place or the date of publication, was at first published and discussed
in 2003 in a catalogue of the collection of the historical maps of China belonging to the Hong Kong University of Science
and Technology; later, a second copy was found at ARSI (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu) in Rome, annexed to
a manuscript by Ruggieri. Sinarum Regni (…) descriptio must be considered the oldest Jesuit map of China, probably
printed in Rome prior to the elaboration, by the Italian missionary, of the manuscript of the atlas of China. The paper
critically compares Sinarum Regni (…) descriptio with the manuscript atlas, underlining analogies and differences.
The talk will describe a selection of the unique library’s Special Collection of printed hand-colored maps of China and Asia now exhibited on the KPS gallery on the library’s first floor. It will show how European maps from 1500 to 1750 represented China and “Tartary”, the part of Asia originally dominated by the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan, starting from Marco Polo’s trip in 1280 and reaching the era of scientific cartography of the 1700s. It will describe different styles of maps and their striking visual features (sea monsters, fantastic city views, comic book-like illustrations).
Dr CABOARA will introduce the unique hand colored maps and antique books from the Library Special Collections now on display in KPS Gallery. These maps offer different stunning visions of China and Central Asia spanning three hundred years of European cartography (15th to 18th centuries). Dr CABOARA will tell the story of why China was known as “Tartary” and will also highlight the historical background and some of the special features and graphics of several maps that are representative of the period.
Then I will introduce a related maps, a 1651 manuscript map of East Asia held at the Jesuit archives, by an unknown Jesuit cartographer, based on a lost model of 1593.
from the 16th to the 18th century
in the Antique Maps of China collection,
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (UST)
I give an overview of the principles of Cartobibliography, show sample entries from the book, then introduce the main map trees and discuss some unique maps.
Delivered (online) on June 23 2022, as part of the lecture series on the history of cartography sponsored by the Guangqi International Center for Scholars 光启国际学者中心
Shanghai Normal University
The first European map of China faintly relied on the copy of a Chinese original, obtained through bribing and espionage; the last covered in this book was the result of the largest land survey ever made until that time. These two and another 125 maps depict, sometimes uniquely, sometimes copying each other, a country whose images were so different that it was hard to understand which to trust.
This study reproduces and describes, for the first time, all the maps of China printed in Europe between 1584 and 1735, unravelling the origin of each individual map, their different printing, issues and publication dates. It also tells, for each, the unique story that made possible these visions from another world, stories marked by scholarly breakthroughs, obsession, missionary zeal, commercial sagacity and greed.
https://library.hkust.edu.hk/exhibitions/china-in-maps/
the Modern Age. Once back in Italy (1588) after several years he had spent in China, he used his knowledge of Chinese
language and the Chinese cartographical sources he had collected there to publish for the European audience an atlas
of the Ming Empire. Unfortunately for him, the atlas remained a manuscript and unrevised proof, now conserved in
the State Archives of Rome. New elements regarding the cartographic work by Ruggieri are related to the recent discovery
of a map linked to the Italian missionary, published at a small scale and ignored so far, entitled Sinarum Regni
alioru[m]q[ue] regnoru[m] et insularu[m] illi adiacentium descriptio. This copperplate-printed map, devoided of
any indication about the cartographer, the printer, the place or the date of publication, was at first published and discussed
in 2003 in a catalogue of the collection of the historical maps of China belonging to the Hong Kong University of Science
and Technology; later, a second copy was found at ARSI (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu) in Rome, annexed to
a manuscript by Ruggieri. Sinarum Regni (…) descriptio must be considered the oldest Jesuit map of China, probably
printed in Rome prior to the elaboration, by the Italian missionary, of the manuscript of the atlas of China. The paper
critically compares Sinarum Regni (…) descriptio with the manuscript atlas, underlining analogies and differences.
The talk will describe a selection of the unique library’s Special Collection of printed hand-colored maps of China and Asia now exhibited on the KPS gallery on the library’s first floor. It will show how European maps from 1500 to 1750 represented China and “Tartary”, the part of Asia originally dominated by the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan, starting from Marco Polo’s trip in 1280 and reaching the era of scientific cartography of the 1700s. It will describe different styles of maps and their striking visual features (sea monsters, fantastic city views, comic book-like illustrations).
Dr CABOARA will introduce the unique hand colored maps and antique books from the Library Special Collections now on display in KPS Gallery. These maps offer different stunning visions of China and Central Asia spanning three hundred years of European cartography (15th to 18th centuries). Dr CABOARA will tell the story of why China was known as “Tartary” and will also highlight the historical background and some of the special features and graphics of several maps that are representative of the period.
Then I will introduce a related maps, a 1651 manuscript map of East Asia held at the Jesuit archives, by an unknown Jesuit cartographer, based on a lost model of 1593.
from the 16th to the 18th century
in the Antique Maps of China collection,
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (UST)
and between ritual and politics, are being redefined by the study of recently excavated bamboo manuscripts.
The present paper discusses and provides the first western annotated
translation of “Jian da wang po han” 簡大王迫旱 (King Jian dispels the
drought), a fourth century B.C. bamboo manuscript from Chu staging a debate between ruler and minister over the cause of a drought afflicting the kingdom and the best way to deal with it. The drought is interpreted as punishment, but opinions differ over the nature of its cause: a ritual, moral or administrative failure of the king.
The paper investigates as well prevalent opinions over the relationship
between the king and his kingdom in terms of the metaphor equating the
kingdom and its people with the king’s own body, and how the sacrificial
exposure of the king’s body to the scorching sun might heal the suffering the drought brings upon the kingdom.
The debate over the mode and meaning of such sacrifice is connected with different views about the nature of the kingdom, its proper organization, the crises facing it and the role of previous traditions, both in Chu and in the wider Warring States intellectual history.
on the meanings attributed to the appearance of monstrous creatures (what Fracasso called “teratoscopy”). These omens recur all in the first section (Shanjing, books 1-5) and all with a rigid format (Fracasso 1983: 670) starting with a description of some prodigious being, either an animal or a spirit, often of hybrid nature, followed by a sentence starting with the two words 見
則 (when it manifests itself, then...) followed by the area affected by the omen and the nature of the event, as in the following example:
又東四百里,曰令丘之山,無草木,多火。其南有谷焉,曰中谷,條風自是 出。有鳥焉,其狀如梟,人面四目而有耳,其名曰颙,其鳴自號也,見則天 下大旱。(衰坷《山海经校注》,巴蜀书社,1993, p.21)
Given the elliptic nature of the omenological statements, many elements of the system remain obscure, including the agents announcing and interpreting the omen and the way to deal with the negative forecast. Recently excavated manuscripts from the IV century BCE Chu kingdom, especially the Shanghai Museum bamboo manuscript “Jian da wang bo han”簡大王迫旱 (King Jian [of Chu] dispels the drought) allow a comparison with a much more detailed account of omen interpretation and public expiation which can shed light on the Shan hai jing system.
I will provide an overview of the spiritual landscape portrayed in the Shan hai jing and its omenological components, then present a translation and an analysis of Jian da wang bo han”簡 大王迫旱 and the way it relates to Shan hai jing, especially in its description of the ‘Mother of drought’ Han mu 旱母 (Nü ba 女魃 in the Shan hai jing, book 17).
Bibliography
Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, “Conception of Terrestrial Organization in the Shan Hai Jing”, Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 82, 1995. pp. 57-110.
Riccardo Fracasso “Teratoscopy or Divination by Monsters, Being a Study on the Wu-tsang Shanching.” Hanxue yanjiu 1:2 (December 1983), pp. 657–700.
季旭昇《〈柬大王泊旱〉譯釋》, 《〈上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書(四)讀本》萬卷樓,2007 來國龍, 《柬大王泊旱》的敍事結構與宗教背景 (兼釋 “殺祭”) 2012-07-06
http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=1716
I will present two Chu bamboo texts from the fourth volume of the Shanghai Museum Collection, “Jian da wang bo han” 簡大王迫旱 (King Jian dispels the drought) and “Zhao wang yu Gongzhitui” 昭王與龔之脽 (King Zhao and Gongzhitui) and evaluate the pros and cons of different textual reconstructions proposed by various scholars in terms of their paleographical, syntactical and pragmatic strength, as a way to raise more general issues about the usage of these new sources as linguistic data.
季旭昇《〈上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書(四)讀本》萬卷樓，2007
來國龍《柬大王泊旱》的敍事結構與宗教背景 (兼釋 “殺祭”) 2012-07-06
http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=1716
Edward L. Shaughnessy, Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006.
周鳳五 《上博四〈昭王與龔之脽〉重探》 臺大中文學報 29 (2008/12): 49-70
通過研究最近出土的竹簡文獻，一些固有概念如君臣關係、祭禮和政治等都得到重新定義。
此文為首篇〈柬大王泊旱〉的英譯及註解；這篇公元前四世紀的楚簡描述大王和臣子如何討論困擾國土的旱災成因和解決方法。旱災被理解為一種懲罰，但究竟是由於祭儀上或道德上的欠缺，還是大王施政的失敗，則眾說紛紜。
文章還探討關於國王和國土關係的理念——把國土和人民譬喻為統治者的身體，若大王把身體獻祭於烈日下曝曬，便可彌補旱災對國家造成的傷害。
這些關於獻祭形式和意義的討論，關係到對國家本質、組織管治、危機處理、傳統的角色等的不同看法，揭示楚地以至整個戰國時期的思想。
It contains the earliest known methodological treatment of turtle shell divination and crack interpretation and represents therefore a new fundamental piece of evidence in the history of Chinese divinatory practices. "