Monday, February 01, 2010

Jesuit Map Found!

The "Impossible Black Tulip," so called because the map was for centuries so difficult to find, shows China at the center of the world. Jesuit Fr. Matteo Ricci, who explored China and even frequented the imperial court, had drawn the map in the early 17th- Century. It "was the first in Chinese to show the Americas and the first printed map to incorporate both Eastern and Western cartography."

It currently is on display in the Library of Congress, according to the Jesuit publication, Company Magazine.

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