Rare map of Japan from Antonio Cardim's important report on the mission in Japan, Fasciculus e Japponicis floribus ... (Rome 1646: Nipponalia 1638, with illustrations). The map was engraved based on the map published by Bernardino Ginnaro at Naples in 1641, the earliest printed version of Moreira's map. Cardim took over the image of Japan virtually unchanged, though in his map the connection by water between the Bay of Osaka and Lake Biwa begins to widen, so that the latter appears to be a bay. The Ginnaro map is contained in the first volume of Ginnaro's work on the Jesuit mission in Asia. In copying Ginnaro's map, Cardim left out some of the decorative accessories, but one of the ships is shown here in connection with Francisco de Xavier's landing in Japan in 1549, with Xavier himself appearing at the stern! Cardim also lists 36 Jesuit settlements and marks Christian communities with a cross. The place-names are given in Portuguese form.
Antonio Francisco Cardim (1596-1659 or 1649?), a Portuguese missionary, joined the Society of Jesus in 1611 and was sent to China seven years later. He spent several years in Macao, using it as a base to visit many countries of the Far East, including Japan. Appointed to the post of Procurator of his province in Rome, he published his Fasciculus ... there in 1646. The work, which was written during the author's first period of residence in Macao in ca. 1635, treats of the early Christian martyrs in Japan, who are compared to a bouquet of flowers.
In good condition. Lutz Walter, Japan a cartographic vision 30 (with illus.).