The cartographer of this map is Fausto Rughesi who was well-connected and based in Rome. The extension, outline and drawing style of this map is similar to that of Ortelius's Asiae Nova Descriptio, so the latter should have some influence on this map. Nevertheless when look carefully into the part of China on this map, we can find that it is drawn after consulting many old and late European maps in correlation with China. The coastline of China south of the C. Liampo generally looks like that on the Ortelius's map, when the northern part of coastline is of great difference. The Shandong peninsula, Korean peninsula, and west half of Japan on the map is approximately correct. And there is the figure of the wandering Great Wall on the north part of China. The names of the provinces of China are written according to the Barbuda's Chinae, olim sinarum regionis, nova descriptio in the 1584 edition of Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. The coastline of north China, especially that of the Shandong peninsula is very similar to Michele Ruggieri's manuscript Atlante della Cina. The mapmaker drew the rivers and lakes inland by synthesizing the maps of Ortelius, Barbuda, Ruggieri, and probably someone else. The Fu (Prefecture) cities are drawn on the map, and the origin of data is worthy of studying, some of them origin from Ruggieri's manuscript. Since Ruggieri's manuscript was drawn during the first years of the 17th century, this map of Rughesi was surely made after that time. The shape of the Pearl River estuary in the province of Cantan is similar to Ortelius's Asiae Nova Descriptio, the estuary looks like a widen strip, and flows southeastward to the sea. The city of Cantan is located on the northeast of the estuary, and there is a note of 'Lampacao' near the exit of the eastern coast of the estuary. To the futher southeast writes 'Lantao', and both notes are noted in the sea. To the east of the estuary is another small river. On the east side of the river, 'Matan ci' is noted near the exit, and the 'ci' probably means city. The position of the note of 'Matan' is similar to that on Ortelius's map.Reference:. Ruggieri, M.; 金国平译. (2013). 大明国图志：罗明坚中国地图集. 澳门: 澳门特别行政区政府文化局.. ALMAGIÀ, R. (1944). Planisferi, carte nautiche e affini dal secoli XIV al XVII esistenti nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. In Monumenta cartographica vaticana (vol.1, pp.69-74, XXII). Città del Vaticano.. M. Fiorini. (1891). Il mappamondo di Fausto Rughesi. Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, 956-972.

Abraham Ortelius was born in Antwerp, and was one of the top European cartographers in the sixteenth century. In 1570 Ortelius made the first world atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, which includes the map named Asiae Nova Descriptio with a far-reaching effect. This one sheet map named Asiae orbis partium maximae nova descriptio was also produced by Ortelius in 1567, and was the original version of the map in his atlas. The drawing of China on this map is similar with the map of Asia by Italian cartographer Giacomo Gastaldi in 1559. The coastline of China extends from southwest to northeast on the whole. The regional names of places on this map are from the ancient and 'modern' geographical knowledge of that time. 'China Pro.' is noted near the tropic of cancer, and 'Cheqvan Regi', 'Nanqvi Regi', 'Xanton Regi', 'Qvinci Regi' are noted on the coastland. 'Cataio Pro.' and 'Mangi Pro.' are noted on the inland region. The Pearl River estuary is shaped as a widen strip, 'Guanzu' is noted on the top of the estuary, and 'Cantõ' on the south part of its eastern shore, and both of them indicate Guangzhou. 'Nanto' is noted to the southeast of Cantõ. To the east of the Pearl River there is another small river flows into the sea. 'Matan' is noted on the east side of its estuary. Out of the Pearl River estuary, a group of small islands are drawn to the west, beside of which is the Latin note 'Hic filius mar garitas producit', which is the explanation of the name of the Pearl River. We can also find the small islands and note on Gastaldi's map. Reference:. Ristow, W. W. (1970). Theatrum Orbis Terrarum 1570-1970. The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 27(4), 316–331.

Joan Martines is the royal cartographer of Philip II. He has made many maps with correlation to China. His characteristic is good at assimilating the up-to-date productions of the European cartographers. So the shape of China on Martines's maps is always changing. This map of east and southeastern Asia by Martines in 1587 is made by counterdrawing the map of the same region in Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum which was first embodied in the 1570 edition of the atlas. The extension of the map is broad, with India on the west, Malaysian Archipelago and the west half of New Guinea on the southeast. And on the part of East Asia of the map, China and Japan is drawn, when Korea is omitted. There is a visible turn on the eastern coastline of China. The coastline extend northeastward from south of China, until the corner at the area of 30°N, where Liampo is noted. Through the corner, the coastline turns to the northwest. There are regional place names noted as 'Mangi que et Cin et China' on the original map of Ortelius. Martines notes 'Mangi' on the north and 'China' on the south. Martines's map is more colorful and flamboyant with strong style of decoration. The figures of mountains, rivers and islands are colored; the sites of cities are also drawn visualized symbols. The largest river of East Asia on the map is noted as 'cantan R. Gange' on its middle stream. The estuary of the river is as broad as a bay. Cantan is on the northeast shore of the bay. There are many islands of different sizes in and out of the bay. There is a note 'Ilha d: beniaga' outside the islands. To the east of the bay there is another small river flows into the sea. There is a city on the east of its estuary noted as 'ramatan', and it's the miswriting of 'matan' or 'mantan'.Reference:. 中村拓. (1967). 锁国前に南蛮人の作れる日本地図, 第II册. 东京: 东洋文库, 405-419.

This planisphere is on a parchment measuring 146 x 209cm, has no title, no indication of the author, no date and is somewhat mutilated. It is a map of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Indian Ocean is missing but could have been on the other piece of the parchment that is lost today. It is certainly somewhat mutilated, because in the upper right of the map (oriented toward the East) was removed a rectangle of about 22 x 40cm and in the lower right corner was cut out another flap of about the same size but with curved contour, so as to give the impression that this right side is on the neck of the parchment. In this same part there is also a whole edge missing. On the opposite side, the planisphere is torn, with a large hole and several small ones in the leftside of the map. Another hole of considerable size is present in the part representing Africa. The planisphere's defects were caused primarily by humidity. Several inscriptions which are faded or worn are not readable. The planisphere is of the nautical kind, with only coastal place names represented and few inland indications. As with Ribero's, this planisphere probably came from a Padron real, but it is far less precise and not of the same quality. The anonymous author was very neglectful and had a rough manner of drawing, making errors in transcriptions, duplications, etc. The planisphere seems to have been copied by an Italian (perhaps Venetian) quickly, or with little care, from a pattern with place names and notes in Portuguese. The colors used are blue, black and red for the coastal names; red, green or blue for the islands, especially small ones; dark yellow or dark green for the mountains; light blue for rivers; a slight tint of light carmine for certain representations of towns or villages. In the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans some ships are depicted. At the edge of the map there is the description 'Insule Maluche'; with some of the islands of today's Philippines, such as 'Medanao,' 'Maton,' 'Cailon,' and 'Hunhan'; still other islands such as 'Ambon,' 'Timor,' and 'Maluca' are also represented. There is a strip of the Chinese coast with the dual inlet of Canton ('cantan' as on the map) and close to it a dozen other coastal names, among which the closest one might read 'macan' (today no longer legible with certainty), and another one described as '[...] Pescadores.' Reference: . ALMAGIÀ, R. (1944). Planisferi, carte nautiche e affini dai secolo XIV al XVII esistenti nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. In Monumenta cartographica Vaticana (vol.1, pp.56-57). Città del Vaticano.. Pásztor, L. (1970). Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. In Guida delle fonti per la storia dell'America Latina negli archivi della Santa Sede e negli archivi ecclesiastici d'Italia, Collectanea Archivi Vaticani (vol.2, p. 601). Città del Vaticano.

Jodocus Hondius was the founder of the Hondius family, a famous map-making family in 17th century Netherland. In 1604, he acquired the mapmaking copper plate used by Mercator and started to produce new atlas. His “Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas” was first published in Amsterdam in 1606. On the basis of the original atlas by Mercator, he added 36 new maps, of which the map here was one. Afterwards, the atlas was reprinted and added new maps continuously, but the original copy of “Map of India Orientalis” by Hondius had been used for a long time. Having referred to the India map made by Petrus Plancius (1552-1622) in 1594, this map portrays the geographical information of Indian, Ceylon, the Malacca Strait, Borneo (now Kalimantan in Indonesia), Luzon (Philippines) and southern China, remaining as one of the earliest Dutch maps about those regions. Along the coast of southern China, from west to east appears Guangxi (QUANCII), Hainan Island (I. Ainam), the Pearl River estuary, Guangzhou (Cantao), Macau (Macao) as well as the island of Taiwan (I. Fermosa). Cochinchina (now northern Vietnam) was also depicted within Chinese boundaries. The title and scale were painted with beautiful scroll ornamentation and decorated with sea monsters, ships and other patterns. Around 1601, armed merchant ships of the Netherlands arrived in Chinese waters and intended to enter the Pearl River estuary to pay tribute to Chinese emperor, leading to nearly three decades of battle for Macao against Portuguese. Until 1627, Dutch troops gave up the intention to occupy Macao and invaded Taiwan instead after all the five invasions of Macao had failed. The images of Dutch warships drawn in the Pearl River estuary reveal that period of history. In 1641, the Dutch captured Malacca from Portuguese and cut off the ship route from Goa in India to Macau. Therefore, the trade from Portugal to China was no longer secure and the Portuguese empire in its heyday began to decline gradually. This map is copied from the atlas “Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas”pubilshed in 1630 collected in Harvard University Library.（G7400 1630 .H6）Reference:. Fite, E. (1926). A book of old maps : Delineating American history from the earliest days down to the close of the revolutionary war. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. . Keuning, J. (1947). The History of an Atlas: Mercator - Hondius. Imago Mundi, Vol. 4, pp. 37-62. . [ 荷] 伽士特拉. (2011). 荷兰东印度公司. 上海市 : 东方出版中心. . 赵文红. (2012). 17世纪上半叶欧洲殖民者与东南亚的海上贸易. 昆明市：云南人民出版社.

Born in the cartographer Teixeira Albernaz family, João Teixeira Albernaz was the most fruitful in Portuguese cartography in 17th century. By employing watercolor on the upper part, the map decorates such geomorphology and hydrology in northern Asia as mountains, bays, rivers and trees with painting skills. The map adopts Mercator projection, so the outline of the northern region is obviously widen. This map uses scale and compass, and also depicts the north Asia to the equator and the adjacent waters, including the western Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Its focuses on coastline and islands and marks the coastal cities, while the inner land is less emphasized. It has the influence of the early Western Chinese map, fully depicting the south of 'Liãopoo'(Ningbo cape); on the contrary, its north has little mention, even without the major river nor its distribution. But the Great Wall is noted as the ' muro da china ' (Chinese wall). The map has made great progress on those depicts of the northern coastline the Yangtze River, rather than a straight line, and on accurate outline of Shandong (Xantun) peninsula, Bohai Bay and the Liaodong Peninsula. In the Pearl River estuary draws a large number of islands with various colors. Macao is marked on the east coast of the Pearl River estuary, while the Cantão (Guangzhou) to the northwest of Macao, which reflects the early notions that Macao was on the east coast of the Pearl River estuary. This mistake is due to two reasons: one, the Pearl River is wide; two, Modaomen, on the west of Macao was the gateway to Xijiang River, and then via the Pearl River to Guangzhou. This is another evidence of map’s reflecting historic ideas. This map is the twelfth sheet from the 31 maps from Taboas geraes de toda a navegação in the Library of Congress (G1015 .T4 1630).Reference:. Library of Congress. (2011). Taboas geraes de toda a navegação. 21 August 2011 Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/item/78653638 . Dias, M. & Botelho, H. (1999). Quatro séculos de imagens da Cartografia portuguesa = Four centuries of images from Portuguese Cartography (2 ed.). Lisboa: Comissão Nacional de Geografia [etc.]. . [ 美] 亨特（Hunter, W.）著；冯树铁译. (1993). 广州“番鬼”录 : 1825-1844缔约前“番鬼”在广州的情形. 广州市：广东人民出版社.

The mapmaker Henricus was the son of the well-known Dutch cartographer Jodocus Hondius. Henricus took over the map-making business of Hondius family after his elder brother and mother passed away in 1629. He worked with his brother-in-law (Joannes Janssonius, 1588-1664) and continued to draw and publish the atlas. With the developing of Westerners’ exploration of East Asian coast areas, their knowledge of the East Asian coastline was also more abundant and accurate, which was reflected in the drawing of maps. The map here was one of the most detailed and accurate maps about Asia in early 17th century Europe. It depicts in detailed rivers, mountains, islands and marks more cities and towns than ever before. Korea was adjusted from an island in the earlier maps to a peninsula linking with Northeast Asia continent. There are illustrations of mermaid and monster in Indian Ocean, elephants in South Asia, lions in East Africa as well as Chinese junks and European merchant ships cruising on all waters, thus the map seems to be an interesting story. The map makes further improvements in portraying Chinese coastline: coastline south of Ningbo cape is more close to the actual shape and Shandong Peninsula and the Bohai Bay begins to take shape but they are much smaller than the actual situation; waters near the first island chain east of the Japanese archipelago and the Ryukyu Islands was labelled as “Chinese Ocean” (Oceanus Chinensis). Nevertheless, the depiction of inland China remains a serious distortion and China’s major river was drawn to connect with each other. The map provides more detailed geographic information along the Pearl River estuary. The position of Guangzhou (Cantao) was revised to locate in the most northerly area of the Estuary. “Macao” was written on the land of east of the Pearl River estuary, while the symbol representing Macau was painted on another island outside the estuary. It should be pointed out that the surrounding islands of Macau, the Cross Gate and the large and small Hengqin islands are already faintly discernable. This map is copied from the 1633 French edition of Johannes Janssonius’ Atlas, ou Represéntation du monde universel et des parties d’icelui, faicte en tables et descriptions collected in Harvard University Library. (MM 1.1633.2 pf)Reference:. Keuning, J. (1947). The History of an Atlas: Mercator - Hondius. Imago Mundi, Vol. 4, pp. 37-62.. Van der Krogt, P. (1996). Amsterdam Atlas Production in the 1630s: A Bibliographer's Nightmare. Imago Mundi, Vol. 48, pp. 149-160.

Guillaume Sanson is the son of Nicolas Sanson who is known as the “father of French cartography”. After the death of his father, Guillaume followed in his father’s footsteps and co-published maps with the new royal cartographer Hubert Jaillot (1632? -1712). The maps of the Sansons boasted of its preciseness, and Jaillot added rich artistic elements to the maps. Therefore, the publication of the maps marked the rise of France cartography. Based on his father’s map of Asia, Guillaume painted this map by integrating a variety of geographic information. Asia in the map stretches from the west coast of the Pacific in the east to Asia Minor in the west. There are a lot of mistakes in the shape of the northeast corner of Asia because the Bering Strait had not been discovered yet at that time. Up till then the westerners had been sailing to the East for nearly two hundred years, so the portrayal of the Arabian Peninsula, the South Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia was very accurate. However, the depiction of China still relied on the knowledge of Martini and other missionaries in the late Ming Dynasty. Although the map was finished and published during Kangxi’s reign in the Qing Dynasty, it reveals actually the geographical information of the late Ming Dynasty. In addition to Quancheu (Guangzhou), Hoeicheu (Huizhou), Nanhuing (nanxiong), Xaochwu (Xaucea), Chanking (Zhaoqing) and other cities were also marked from east to west in QUANGTUNG (Guangdong) Province, but the positions of two cities with similar names Caocheu (Chaozhou) and Gaocheu (GAOZHOU) were interchanged. “Macao” was written on the waters outside the Pearl River estuary and to the left of the word appears an explicit symbol that obviously refers to Macau. Many small islands around Macau are faintly visible, and in the southwest direction of Macau was marked “Sanchoan” which should refer to Shangchuan Island, but there is no distinct symbol. The Map of Asia by Guillaume Sanson was first published in 1683 and was reprinted consecutively. This map is copied from the single map published in 1692 from Harvard Map Collection. (G7400 1692 .S3)Reference:. Szczesniak, B. (1956). The Seventeenth Century Maps of China: An Inquiry into the Compilations of European Cartographers. Imago Mundi, Vol. 13, pp. 116-136. . Pastoureau, M. (1980). Les Atlas Imprimés en France avant 1700. Imago Mundi, Vol. 32, pp. 45-72. . 金国平编译. (2005). 西方澳门史料选萃: 15-16世纪. 广州：广东人民出版社.

Blaeu was a representative of the golden age of Cartography in the Netherlands in 17th century and he had long served as the cartography officer in Dutch East India Company (VOC). He and his son Blaeu junior (Joan Blaeu, 1596-1673) started to publish the Novus Atlas from 1634. The first year witnessed the publication of the German version, including a total of 208 maps. The Latin, Dutch and French version were published in the second year. After Blaeu senior died, his son continued to publish the atlas and expanded the space constantly. The maps were also increased approximately to 600. In 17th century Europe, Novus Atlas published by the Blaeu family contained most maps and was the most expensive atlas. In 1672, a big fire destroyed the drawing workshop of the Blaeu family; thereupon the vast publishing industry of Novus Atlas came to an end. This map is selected from the Novus Atlas published in 1635. It shows the vast area of the eastern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean, including the newly discovered western coastal areas of Australia by Dutch, but the mapmaker did not know the actual geography of Australia, so it was confused with New Guinea. The mapmaker mistakenly called the cape of Zhejiang and Ningbo area the “Ningbo’s corner” (C. d. Liampo) and falsely assumed that the coastline north of the cape in China was mainly straight, whereas the coastline of Guangdong and Fujian on the map is basically correct. Pearl River was known as “Guangdong River” (R. d. Canton), on the estuary of which an island was marked Macao, but the mapmaker wrongly placed Guangzhou (Canton) in the west region of the Pearl River. In the portraits below the map, besides a heavily armed Dutch there are several angels with different facial expressions, who are playing cross, globe, mariner’s compass, celestial globe or drums, lively and cute. Those lifelike images vividly capture the essence of modern Western culture: the Christian religion, science and technology, marine exploration and military conquest. This map is copied from the Map Collection Department of Harvard University Library, and was collected in the Blau’s Toonneel des aerdriicx, ofte nievwe atlas, dat is beschryving van alle landen; nu nieulycx uytgegeven door Wilhelm en Iohannem Blaeu, 1635 Edition (G1059 .W57 1654).Reference:. Schilder, G., & Blaeu, W. J. (1990). Monumenta cartographica Neerlandica (Vol. 3,4). Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto. . Koeman, C., & Blaeu, J. (1970). Joan Blaeu and his grand atlas. Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. . Koeman, C. (1969). Atlantes Neerlandici (Vol. 2). Amsterdam: Theatrum orbis terrarum.