MISSIONARIES’ MAPS
[MAPS.]
‘Carte du Vicariat Apost. de Péking & Tche-ly Nord’.
[China], 1896.
I: Folding manuscript map in French (c. 445 x 555 mm opened), hand-coloured, with key and scale to bottom left and table at top headed ‘Etat de la population chrétienne du Vicariat de Péking et Tche-ly Nord en 1896’; short, closed tears to folds in blank upper margin; very good.
II: Folding manuscript map in French (c. 445 x 280 mm opened), hand-coloured, with title and scale to top right; very good.
Two handsome maps providing a snapshot of the region around modern Beijing and the Bohai Sea encompassed within the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Chi-Li and the Vicariate Apostolic of Southwestern Chi-Li in 1896, showing towns, missionary residences, roads, railways, rivers and lakes, and part of the Great Wall of China. The table to the first map calculates the Christian population in the area at 42,600 across the city of Peking and the districts of Pao-ting-fou, Suen-hoa-fu, Young-pin-fou, and Tien-tsin-fou. Since Northern Chi-Li was centred in Beijing, the imperial capital, its vicar – Jean-Baptiste-Hippolyte Sarthou C.M. at the time of this map’s creation – was the de facto leading bishop in China.
