1679 Tavernier Map of Vietnam and Southern China - First Edition

This is a rare, large, 1679 map of Vietnam and Southern China printed by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier and attributed to that mapmaker's elder brother, the French Huguenot merchant adventurer, Daniel Tavernier. The map covers the coast of Vietnam from southern China to the Mekong Delta. It includes parts of modern-day China: the Island of Hainan and the Chinese coast roughly as far north as modern-day Hong Kong and Macau. The Island of Shangchuan (上川岛) appears as well, just south of Hong Kong, where the Navarrese-Basque Roman Catholic missionary, St. Francis Xavier, died.

Tavernier

This map is attributed to Daniel Tavernier, the elusive elder brother of the gem merchant and map publisher Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. Daniel preceded his brother to the orient by at least 10 years and, from his base in the Dutch East India port of Batavia, made 11 or 12 voyages to Tonquin or modern-day northern Vietnam. This map was drawn from his experience and features numerous textual annotations that Suarez suggests contain 'both factual and fanciful' information, but we find most to be very accurate. Annotations describe the famous mineral hot springs of Hainan, the relative navigability of key rivers, and the site of missionary Francis Xavier's death on the Chinese island of Shangchuan. They further make note of the border between the kingdoms of Tonquin (north Vietnam) and Chochine (south Vietnam) in the vicinity of modern-day Hue. The Red River is illustrated prominently, bridged and straddled by Hanoi - here named Checho, by far the most prominent city on the map.

Who Owns the South China Sea

Much has been made of this map in relation to modern day trade disputes in the South China Sea between China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The contested Spratly or Paracel Islands are unfortunately not identified. In fact, although the scope of the map should theoretically cover these islands, the expanse of sea where they lie is instead filled with a compass rose. Nonetheless, this map does cover the South China Sea nearly in full and it is meaningful that this is presented as a 'Map of Tonquin.' Despite covering parts of China, there is no reference to Chinese sovereignty extending south of Hainan.

Early China Trade

It does, on the other hand, identify the Côn Đảo Archipelago (Condore Islands) as the Tortues, referencing the abundance of turtles found there. Following their later abandonment of their factory in Hanoi, the English East India Company established a foothold on Pulo Condore as an entrepôt for ships plying the India-China route - soon to be expelled by the Vietnamese. Tavernier's inclusion of the islands here suggests a recognition their strategic value well before the English efforts.

Communicative Decorative Elements

Later editions of this map - the Dutch, and the German - fill the empty ocean space with depictions of Neptune on his chariot. In comparison, the ships sailing the waters of this map seem sedate. Their placement, however - sailing around the point of Bonten approaching the Côn Đảo Archipelago, and sailing into the harbor of Cuadag, is significant.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved by Jean-Louis Durant and published by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in his 1679 Recueil de plusieurs relations et traitez singuliers et curieux, the appendix to Jean-Baptiste Tavernier's 1676 Les Six Voyages de Jean Baptiste Tavernier. The map was later re-engraved entirely (to a much smaller plate) for the 1682 Dutch edition of the Tavernier, and again in 1684 to accompany Johann Chrisoph Wagner's Delineatio Provinciarum Pannoniae et Imperii Turcici in Oriente. The 1679 Recueil is well represented in institutional collections, but the separate map only appears in one catalog entry - incorrectly dated - in the Bibliothèque National de France.