Castner, Caspar
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.
Jesuit Foothold in the Chuanshan Archipelago.
Land-Taffel der Insel Sanciano.
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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. (more details)