First Printed Map to Focus on China & Japan

Lorenz Fries, Strassburg, 1522 (1535)
untitled woodcut map of China and Japan. 11 1/2 x 18 inches + wide margins. Excellent. $7500.

Fine example of the first map specifically delineating the East Coast of China and Japan. This work is one of the "new" maps that appeared in Lorenz Fries' Ptolemy, charting lands which were unknown to that Alexandrian scientist; Ptolemy did not attempt to draw the east coast of Asia, and was unaware of the existence of Japan. Even Waldseemuller, who nine years earlier had produced new and radical maps reflecting the recent Portuguese exploits around Africa and into the Indian Ocean, had not made a comparable map as this work of Fries, and had not even included Japan on the the world map from his 1513 Ptolemy.

Lorenz Fries was a physician, astrologer, and geographer who worked in Strassburg and Metz. The precise years of his birth and death are unknown, but are thought to be circa 1490-1532. His name is also spelled Friess, Frisius, Phrisius, Phryes, and Phrijsen. This map is among his most significant.

It charts Japan as a somewhat rectangular, north-south oriented island. Two place-names are indicated, one being "Sinpangri," a variation of Zinpangri, the island's name, and apparently intended to be the capital city. It is situated midway along the west coast of the island. The other city, "Cobeba", lies inland along a river; as far as this writer can determine, its origin does not lie in the account of Marco Polo, or in any other identifiable source.

A brief Latin inscription in Japan relates that its people worship idols and pay tribute to a sovereign.

The island itself, as is typical for pre-discovery chartings of Japan, is located too far south; it extends from approximately 32 degrees north latitude to 8 degrees north latitude, leaving a fair amount of the island quite tropical.

The ocean separating Japan from the Asian mainland is labelled as the Indian Ocean. Empty space in the north of the ocean is used to illustrate a Tartar king in his tent.

The map is geographically derived form the great 1513 cordiform world map of Waldseemuller.

Within China, archaic names familiar to historians abound: Cianba, Mangi, Cathai, and a very mis-placed "Tebet."