Mr Selden's Map of China

About this book

A fascinating work of history, biography, cartography, and literary mystery, Mr Selden's Map of China unlocks the secrets behind a recently discovered map of China like no other of its time. In 1659, a vast and unusual map of China arrived in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was bequeathed by John Selden, a London business lawyer, political activist, former convict, MP, and the city's first Orientalist scholar. Largely ignored, it remained in the bowels of the library, until called up by an inquisitive reader. When Timothy Brook saw it in 2009, he realized that it was "a puzzle to be solved."... it shows China, not cut off from the world, but a participant in the embryonic networks of glabl trade that fuelled the rise of Europe -- and mow poer China's ascent.--Jacket.