"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"-- Provided by publisher.
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.
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.
