L'Isle Formose et Partie des Costes de la Chine.

Very good. Light wear along original folds. Size 9.5 x 11 Inches. This is Jacques-Nicolas Bellin's important c. 1756 map of Taiwan, which appeared in l'Abbé Prévost's Histoire Ge?ne?rale des Voyages , here with hand-coloring. Drawing on information from Jesuit missionaries, Bellin's map was among the earliest European maps to focus on the island and the first to employ its contemporary official Chinese name (Taiwan, here as 'Taiouan or Taivan'). A Closer Look Coverage includes the island of Taiwan or Formosa, surrounding islands, and the opposite coast of Fujian. Settlements, waterways, and areas of elevation are illustrated, along with approximations of local placenames. Bellin admits that the geography of the interior and east side of the island is not well known, though the basic features are not wildly inaccurate. The island's two most notable settlements were at Tainan (here as 'Taiouan or Taivan,' as in Taiwan-fu ???, the administrative center established by the Qing Dynasty in 1683) and 'Formose' near today's Taipei. The ruins of Ft. Zeelandia near Tainan, Baimiweng Fort at Keelung near Taipei, and Fengguiwei Fort on Magong in the Penghus are labeled, reflecting the recent Dutch presence on Taiwan. Across the strait are Zhangzhou (Tchang Cheou Fou), Xiamen (Emoui, later rendered as Amoy), Quanzhou (Sruent Cheou Fou), and Putian (Hing Hou Fou). Nearby islands are also recorded, including the Penghus, Lanyu (I. du Petit Tabaco), and Lüdao (I. du Grand Tabaco). Historical Context As the Manchu Qing Dynasty moved to replace the Ming Dynasty in the 1660s, they were presented with two interrelated problems: Ming Loyalists and the independent pirate-trader kingdom on Taiwan led by Zheng Chenggong (???, known as Coxinga in Western sources). Zheng's extended family, which included several prominent Ming officials in Fujian Province, operated a semi-independent trading empire in the last years of the Ming era, profiting from trade networks stretching to Japan, the Philippines, and mainland Southeast Asia and alternately fighting and trading with Europeans. Under Zheng Chenggong, the family reached its apex, resisting the ascendant Manchus and briefly besieging Nanjing before retreating to Taiwan, where they expelled the Dutch from Tainan (Fort Zeelandia). Soon afterward, Zheng Chenggong died of malaria, and his forces were weakened in their battle against the Qing. Still, it took more than twenty years for the Qing to decide what to do about the Zheng family, amass a fleet, defeat the remnant Zheng forces, and establish a new administration on the island. Having eliminated the Zheng, the Qing aimed to exert control over Taiwan to prevent a similar force from emerging again. Subordinated to Fujian Province, the new Taiwan Prefecture (Taiwan-fu) was designated, and the city labeled 'Taiouan or Taivan' emerged as the cultural, administrative, and economic center of the island. Still, the Qing were bedeviled by conflicts and uprisings on the island, often driven by ethnic tensions between Chinese settlers and aboriginal Taiwanese and between earlier Chinese settlers and more recent arrivals. Publication History and Census This map was drawn by Bellin for inclusion as Plate No. 23 in Vol. 5 of l'Abbé Prévost's Histoire Ge?ne?rale des Voyages, ou nouvelle collection de toutes les relations de voyages par mer et par terre , published between 1746 and 1759. Due to uncertainty over the map's date and the intermingling of digital and physical examples, the map appears in nine separate OCLC listings, but the number of institutions holding physical examples is limited to Cornell University, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Universitätsbibliothek Bern. A small number of other institutions also hold later printings (distinguishable by the volume and plate number at bottom-right), while the entire Histoire Ge?ne?rale des Voyages is more widely distributed. References: OCLC 63835772, 495096044, 1331973447.…