Tartaria

European perceptions about northern Asia during the late 1500s.

This gorgeous copperplate-engraved map presents the 17th-century European understanding of northern and central Asia, vaguely defined as an ambiguous land called Tartary. While Tatars (sometimes called Tartars) are an ethnic group from the Asian steppe, the term was also widely used as a ‘blanket term’ for the vast areas formerly administered by the Mongol Empire. The huge region is sandwiched between an expanding Tsardom of Russia and a rapidly decaying Ming China. The physical landscape is depicted with pictorial elements like small trees (forests) and hills (mountain ranges). A fascinating variety of toponyms identify geographic features, political entities, settlements, and more. Of notable interest is the vignette in the upper center, which reflects the nomadic lifestyle of the Tatar people, centered around the yurt and raising livestock.

The striking image includes numerous hallmarks of 17th-century geographic theory. To the far north, the incomplete coastline of Nova Zemlya highlights the latest explorations by William Barents. In the southern reaches, an irregularly shaped Caspian Sea marks the northern border of adjacent Safavid Persia. Korea is presented as an island in the Pacific, while the semi-mythical Strait of Anian represents a precursor to Bering’s later discoveries.

The map was originally created in the late 16th century by the revolutionary cartographer Gerard Mercator. The copper plates were purchased by Jodocus Hondius, who revitalized the aging project by adding new maps and capitalizing on Mercator’s famous name. This example came from a c. 1640 edition, published in Amsterdam in conjunction with Hondius’ son-in-law, Jan Jansson. German text on the verso.