Early map of China with Korea shown as an island and with north shown to the right. 

Geographically this map is based on the map first issued by Ortelius in 1584 and which acted as a model for all maps of the country for the next seventy years. Originally, it showed north to the right of the sheet although some maps later flipped the map to show north to the top. The nature of Korea was more problematic. Ortelius omitted it from his map of China altogether. A world map by Petrus Plancius engraved in 1594 added it correctly as a peninsula to eastern Asia for the first time while the majority, but not all, later European map makers added it as an island off the eastern coast of China, as in this map. It remained a mystery to European map makers until a new Jesuit survey conveyed to the Blaeu publishing house in 1655. 

This reduced version of Hondius' map of China was issued by Samuel Purchas in his landmark work "Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes" an enormous tome compiled and edited by Purchas from the work of Richard Hakluyt. 

Credit for the map is give in the upper centre of the map "Hoindius, his map of China", a reference to Jodocus Hondius, the compiler and publisher of the first edition of this map in 1606. 

Coloured. [SEAS5535]