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A Rarity of China & East Asia
China/ Southeast Asia/ India.
JODE, G. & C. DE [Antwerp, 1593]
Tertiae Partis Asiae.
13 x 19 ¾ inches.
Fine hand color. Excellent condition.
This rare map’s presentation of China exemplifies the very early European mapping of the area, which is characterized by a relatively straight, diagonal coastline. A more accurate general outline of China would have to await the more careful, Sino-Jesuit surveys that would be conducted in the first decades of the 17th century. The De Jode map relies on the mapping of Portuguese missionaries, as transmitted by the Italian mapmaker, Gastaldi, in his five-sheet map of Asia of 1561.
The De Jode family (Gerardus, the father, and Cornelis, the son) had the misfortune of attempting to compete in the atlas market with the formidable and well-connected Abraham Ortelius. Although the De Jodes were and are respected as mapmakers, they were no commercial match for Ortelius. They published a mere two editions of their atlas as opposed to approximately 40 by Ortelius. Hence, the considerable rarity of De Jode maps in today’s market.
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