Rare map, with China at the centre of world, goes on displayThe map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas. Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was among the first westerners to live in what is now Beijing in the early 1600s. Known for introducing western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor WanLi.
Ti Bin Zhang, first secretary for cultural affairs at the Chinese Embassy, said the map represents "the momentous first meeting of East and West" and was the "catalyst for commerce."
No examples of the map are known to exist in China, where Ricci was revered and buried. Only a few original copies are known to exist, held by the Vatican's libraries and collectors in France and Japan.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5j-a_rgPOHYQaSpzzAle2-JJRSFHA
Not surprisingly, Ricci also became the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City by a Chinese emperor and the first to be buried in China.
Ricci earned these honors because he was the first to have translated the Confucian classics into Latin and Euclid's "Elements of Geometry" into Chinese.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/15/content_12814371.htm
