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Traslitterazione dei toponimi, ricalco cartografico, collaborazione interdisciplinare. Il metodo di Michele Ruggieri per l’atlante della Cina (fine XVI-inizi XVII secolo)
Transliteration of place names, cartographic tracing, interdisciplinary collaboration. Michele Ruggieri’s methodology for his Atlas of China (late 16th-early 17th century)
Piastra, Stefano
2023
Abstract
After summarising data and events relating to the figure of the Jesuit Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607), a pioneer of the period of encounter between East and West in the Modern Age, and his project, which remained at the manuscript stage, to publish the first Western atlas of China, the article analyses in detail, on the basis of the materials that now exist at the State Archives in Rome, the missionary’s working method, based on Chinese cartographic sources, their enlargement and transliteration of the toponyms contained therein, and cartographic tracing. Following these operations, a further phase would have seen a professional cartographer succeed Ruggieri in the processing of the maps, which, thus finished, would finally be passed on to the engraver for the copperplate engraving (the latter phase was never completed due to Ruggieri’s death). Further topics addressed are an estimate of Ruggieri’s materials connected to the atlas that were originally intended to be present among the working materials, but which are now destroyed or missing, some epistemological reflections on the nature of the cartography of the atlas, and, finally, some notes on which graphic layout and impact Ruggieri’s atlas would have had if published.
Dopo aver sintetizzato dati e vicende relativi alla figura del gesuita Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607), pioniere della stagione di incontro fra Oriente e Occidente in età moderna, e al suo progetto, rimasto allo stadio di manoscritto, di pubblicare il primo atlante occidentale della Cina, l’articolo analizza nel dettaglio, sulla base dei materiali oggi esistenti entro il corpus ruggieriano presso l’Archivio di Stato di Roma, il metodo di lavoro del missionario, ancorato a fonti cartografiche cinesi, loro ingrandimento e traslitterazione dei toponimi lì contenuti, ricalco cartografico. Successivamente a tali operazioni, un’ulteriore fase avrebbe visto un cartografo professionista succedere a Ruggieri nella lavorazione delle carte, le quali, così finite, sarebbe infine passate all’incisore per l’incisione calcografica (fase, quest’ultima, a cui non si giunse mai, causa la morte del Nostro). Ulteriori temi affrontati sono una stima dei materiali ruggieriani connessi all’atlante che originariamente dovevano essere presenti tra i materiali di lavoro, ma che oggi risultano distrutti o dispersi, alcune riflessioni epistemologiche sulla natura della cartografia dell’atlante e infine alcune note circa quale aspetto grafico e quale impatto l’atlante ruggieriano avrebbe avuto se fosse stato stampato.
After summarising data and events relating to the figure of the Jesuit Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607), a pioneer of the period of encounter between East and West in the Modern Age, and his project, which remained at the manuscript stage, to publish the first Western atlas of China, the article analyses in detail, on the basis of the materials that now exist at the State Archives in Rome, the missionary’s working method, based on Chinese cartographic sources, their enlargement and transliteration of the toponyms contained therein, and cartographic tracing. Following these operations, a further phase would have seen a professional cartographer succeed Ruggieri in the processing of the maps, which, thus finished, would finally be passed on to the engraver for the copperplate engraving (the latter phase was never completed due to Ruggieri’s death). Further topics addressed are an estimate of Ruggieri’s materials connected to the atlas that were originally intended to be present among the working materials, but which are now destroyed or missing, some epistemological reflections on the nature of the cartography of the atlas, and, finally, some notes on which graphic layout and impact Ruggieri’s atlas would have had if published.
Source
Stefano Piastra, "Traslitterazione dei toponimi, ricalco cartografico, collaborazione interdisciplinare. Il metodo di Michele Ruggieri per l’atlante della Cina (fine XVI-inizi XVII secolo)" in: "Bollettino dell'Associazione Italiana di Cartografia 178 (2023)", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2023, pp. 157-175
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it
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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