Mapping the World

Mapping the World. Cartographic concepts in light of Matteo Ricci’s
Chinese World Map (1602) in East-West perspective

will focus on cartographic practice and the meeting of Chinese and European intellectual life as evidenced by one of the great world treasures in the Austrian National Library, the world map Kun yu wan guo quan tu from 1602.
Produced by an Italian Jesuit missionary at the Ming court, the map documents a formative cultural encounter between East and West, reconciling traditional world views and mathematical projection, and raises questions about cartography as a visual medium of communication then and now.

Speakers: Karel Kriz (Vienna), Eugene Wang (Cambridge, USA), Ute Landwehr (Vienna), Sebastian Schütze (Vienna), William Cartwright (Melbourne)

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