Matteo Ricci's world map
A Jesuit draws a world map for China with China at the centre
In 1602 in Beijing the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci and Chinese scholars printed a large map of the world. To please his hosts he put the Pacific in the middle, leaving China near the centre. For many Chinese it was their first sight of the Americas.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Did you know
In 1602 an Italian drew a world map for the Chinese — and moved the Pacific to the middle. Matteo Ricci did it so China would sit near the centre of the world, as his readers expected. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — 20 years earlier
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — 4 years earlier
- 1600 East India Company founded — 2 years earlier
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — 8 years later
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — 16 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — 20 years earlier
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — 4 years earlier
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — 10 years later
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — 11 years later
Africa
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — 11 years earlier
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — 22 years later
Americas
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — 2 years earlier
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — 3 years later
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — 5 years later
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — 7 years later
Alive at the time
- Elizabeth I (aged 69)
- Akbar the Great (aged 60)
- Tokugawa Ieyasu (aged 59)
- Miguel de Cervantes (aged 55)
- William Shakespeare (aged 38)
- Galileo Galilei (aged 38)
- René Descartes (aged 6)
- Matteo Ricci (aged 50)
- Rudolf II (aged 50)
- Henry IV (aged 49)