1728 Stöcklein Map of the Macao / Hong Kong Region

Jesuit Foothold in the Chuanshan Archipelago.

This is the Joseph Stöcklein and Caspar Castner 1729 map of the south coast of China near Macau and Hong Kong. It highlights the Jesuit foothold on Shangchuan Island on the southern coast of Guangdong, China, dramatically overstating its size and proximity to Macao and Guangzhou, likely intentionally so that Stöcklein could incorporate additional detail.

A Closer Look

The map, ostensibly oriented to the north, presents a part of the province of Guangdong along the left and top portions of the map. Guangzhou appears (Statt Canton) a short way up the unnamed Pearl River; Macao is marked incorrectly on the northeast bank of the Pearl River. The map is dominated by an array of islands, bearing little resemblance to the actual geography. The island central to the map - Shangchuan Island - is grossly exaggerated in size and is thoroughly misplaced. The island is nonetheless mapped with some accuracy, including the anchorage, the two large bays on the western part of the island, the Jesuit compound, and the grave of Saint Francis Xavier. The map's otherwise inaccurate geography is puzzling, since Castner had a strong reputation as both a mathematician and a geographer.

Promoting Shangchuan as a Pilgrimage Destination

By the end of the 17th century, Shangchuan was not an important location strategically, having been surpassed by other Chinese entrepots for trade, while at the same time, Portuguese and consequently Jesuit influence in the region was waning. Shangchuan was an essential Portuguese and Jesuit toehold in the 16th century, and the missionary Francis Xavier died there in 1552. But despite his uncorrupted body having been discovered there, it was swiftly spirited off to Goa, with the result that Xavier's cult would develop in that city, rather than the place where he lived and worked. Among the Jesuits remaining in Shangchuan, bringing the story of the saint home to this Chinese island would become a perennial cause célèbre. Saint Francis Xavier's original grave was 'discovered' in 1637, and a tombstone was erected there in 1644, though it was swiftly forgotten. In 1688, the grave was rediscovered by Jesuit Filippo Felice Carrocci (1646 - 1695), and a new round of promotion began. When Caspar Castner was assigned to the island, he undertook the work of erecting a new memorial on the grave (the plan of which appears at the top of this plate.) In 1700, he published, in Macao, a tiny edition (200 copies) of his Relatio Sepulturæ Magno Orientis Apostolo S. Francisco Xaviero describing his efforts. Happily, this work was passed on to Joseph Stöcklein, who included it and this map in his Jesuit Relations.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Caspar Castner for inclusion in his Relatio Sepulturae Magno Orientis Apostolo S. Francisco Xaviero. The current plate was engraved by Christoph Dietell for inclusion in Joseph Stöcklein's 1729 Allerhand So Lehr- als Geist-reiche Brief, Schrifften, und Reis-Beschreibungen welche meistens von denen Missionariis Societatis Jesu Aus Beyden Indien. We are aware of only one state of the map. Examples of Stöcklein's book are well represented in institutional collections, but we see a listing of only one example of the separate map in OCLC. Scarce on the market.

Cartographers

Joseph Stöcklein [Stoecklein] (July 30, 1676 – December 28, 1733) was a Jesuit priest, missionary, and scholar active in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was born in Oettingen, Germany and joined the Jesuit order in Vienna around 1700. He served as a priest in military encampments where he became popular as a preacher. Afterwards he became the head of the Jesuit library in Graz, Switzerland, a position he maintained for six years. During this tenure he began work on his opus, the Welt-Bott, a vast compilation of Jesuit missionary letters and narratives translated into vernacular German intended both to glorify the priesthood and share valuable information about the world. Today this work is exceedingly rare.   Further Details...

Caspar Castner (October 7, 1655 - November 9, 1709) was a German Jesuit missionary. He joined the order in 1681 and was trained in theology at Ingolstadt. After a brief period teaching in Germany, he was sent to China, where he lived and worked mainly in the market city of Foshan, and the island of Shangchuan (a key stepping stone of the Portuguese, going back to the 16th century). He briefly returned to Europe in 1702, visiting Lisbon and Rome, but returned to China in 1706, where he would die in 1709. Castner's geographic legacy was his 1700 Relatio Sepulturæ Magno Orientis Apostolo S. Francisco Xaviero erectæ in Insula Sanciano MDCC, a description and map of Shangchuan Island. An unobtainable rarity, it was translated by Joseph Stöcklein for his 1729 'Welt-Bott,' including a plate containing the Shangchuan map and a plan of the gravesite, situated on that island, of the sainted missionary Francis Xavier. (Castner's labors included the erection of a memorial on the Saint's gravesite.) Castner had made studies of navigation, astronomy, and cartography; he had correctly proposed an improved route to China from the Cape of Good Hope, for example. It is unfortunate that his reputed good work on the mapping of the Chinese Empire for the Qing Emperor Kangxi (1654–1722) did not result in any printed maps under his name. He had served as well as the mathematics instructor to the heir of the Imperial throne.   Further Details...

Christoph Dietell (March 8, 1690 - December 1, 1764) was an Austrian copperplate and letter engraver, and art dealer, active in the 18th century. Dietell was born in Upper Palatinate, Bavaria but relocated to Vienna at a young age. His father, Stephan Dietl, was also a copper plate engraver. Christoph Dietell studied at the University of Vienna as a 'civis academicus' (historian), and did copperplate engraving for the university. By 1732 he was located in Graz, where he became known as a map and landscape engraver, which secured both secular and ecclesiastical business. He died in Graz in 1764. Franz Ambrosius Dietell, his brother, was also a noted Vienna copperplate engraver.   Further Details...

Source

Stöcklein, J., Allerhand So Lehr- als Geist-reiche Brief, Schrifften, und Reis-Beschreibungen welche meistens von denen Missionariis Societatis Jesu Aus Beyden Indien, (Augsburg) 1729.    

Condition

Good. Margins reinstated at left, some mends, no loss.

References

OCLC 50385689 (dramatically misdated).