A rare map 16th century of China

A very scarce circular map of China after Jorge de Barbuda, with Japan and Tartary, within a strapwork border containing four illustrated roundels of Far Eastern life. The vignettes depict: fish-catching cormorants; a fishing boat with a domestic fowl pen and a billowing chimney; two figures venerating a three-headed deity; and the wind-powered cart depicted on many a European map of the region, including those by Hondius and Speed.

This map was only published in the 1593 edition of Gerard de Jode's 'Speculum Orbis Terrae', published two years after Gerard's death by his widow and son Cornelis. This second edition, which contained ten new maps, was to be the last: after the death of Cornelis in 1600 the plates were bought by Vrients, then the owner of the Ortelius plates, merely to suppress them.