Isola del Giapone

Coronelli's important map of Japan is dedicated to the Very Reverend Father Fontaine, Jesuit and secretary to Pope Innocent XI. This acknowledges the debt that Western mapmaking owed to the cartographic activities of the Society in far flung places such as Japan and China. To emphasize this, Coronelli also includes the Jesuit motto IHS on the cartouche. This stands for Iesu Homine Salve. The large ship vignette is described with a text panel underneath, together with a voyage this ship undertook from Osaka to Nagasaki, which is also marked on the map. This is one of the outstanding European 17th century maps of Japan and Korea. [SEAS4312]