Abstract
Since the ‘rediscovery’ of the Selden map of China, an early seventeenth century map of Asia, in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the importance of the map in our understanding of globalisation in the early seventeenth century has been recognised. One of the unresolved questions is the origin of the map. This paper addresses the question through material evidence provided by a holistic approach using a suite of complementary analytical techniques. The map was examined in situ and non-invasively by a remote spectral imaging instrument (PRISMS) modified for close range imaging, which was followed by a range of complementary techniques applied to a number of detached fragments, though most of the techniques are non-invasive and can be applied to the map directly in the future. The binding medium was found to be a gum, almost certainly gum Arabic, rather than the animal glue commonly used in Chinese paintings. Some of the pigments and their usage were found to be at odds with the common practice in paintings from China. The detection of gum Arabic, a binding medium used by the Europeans, South and West Asians and the use of a mixture of orpiment and indigo, commonly found in European, South and West Asian paintings gives further evidence on the unusual origins of this map. The likely detection of a basic copper chloride, such as atacamite, in the green areas suggests an influence from the South and West Asian rather than the European tradition. Detailed analysis of the various spectral bands of the spectral image cube along with visual inspection of the large scale colour image showed that the map was not fully planned at the beginning but rather painted in stages, at times by trial and error and that it was unfinished. A new hypothesis for the origin of the Selden map in Aceh Sumatra is proposed based on the new evidences.
Highlights
The Selden map of China is an early seventeenth century map showing the maritime trade routes in Asia (Fig. 1)
Prior to the recent conservation of the map, the Bodleian Library invited the group at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) to perform in situ high resolution spectral imaging of selected regions on the map in June 2009, while in the meantime, detached fragments fallen out during the unrolling of the map were analysed with Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy in the attenuated total reflection mode (FTIR-ATR) at the Bodleian and sent to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) to be analysed by micro-Raman spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy
A recent paper published by some of us has shown in detail the complementary use of a suite of non-invasive techniques ranging from spectral imaging to Raman, XRF and optical coherence tomography (OCT) that was applied directly to Chinese export water colour paintings of the nineteenth century demonstrating the advantages of a holistic multi-technique approach [14]
Summary
The Selden map of China is an early seventeenth century map showing the maritime trade routes in Asia (Fig. 1). Some of the most well-known surviving examples of large scale maps of the Chinese Empire and ‘the world’ are given by the Map of the Tracks of Yu the Great (禹迹 圖) and the Map of China and Foreign Countries (華夷 圖) carved in stone around 1137 [10]. The former shows a map of China drawn on square grids of equal scales and the latter shows a map of China with text descriptions of foreign places. Chinese maps were sometimes painted in colour in the tradition of Chinese landscape paintings, for example, the The Amalgamated Map of the Great Ming Empire (大明混一圖) painted on silk is a world map dated to around 1389 that showed the world stretching from China and Japan to Europe, Africa and from Mongolia to Java [11]
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