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A tiny city in the East, Macao once played a vital role in the history of international transportation. It is marked on many ancient maps before the 18th Century, which witness the transformation of Macao.

The Library of Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST Library) has gathered many ancient maps related to Macao from all over the world, and showcased the maps collected by the Vatican Apostolic Library two months ago. Another tranche of the ancient maps will be displayed in Sir Robert Ho Tung Library in November.

Ancient maps featuring China before the 18th Century were usually drawn by missionaries, and Macao always assumed a role in these maps.

For instance, the Map of Canton produced by Michel Boym, a Jesuit missionary, delineates Macao Island and its peripheral islands and marks ‘Macao’ with its Chinese name on the map. On the other hand, the Map of Quantung and Fokien drawn by Vincenzo Cornelli, a Franciscan missionary, labels the outside sea area of the Pearl River Delta as ‘Golfo di Macao’.

These maps collected by the Vatican Apostolic Library were exhibited in the MUST Library two months ago. “Of all Asian cities on maps, Beijing and Guangzhou are illustrated at an early stage. Macao is also one of them, showing that Macao was a crucial transportation hub throughout the world in the 16th Century. We hope that the collection of these maps will enhance researchers’ academic works in Macao,” said Dai Longji, the University Librarian of MUST.

These exhibits are high quality replicas. Precise scanned copies of the original ancient maps have to be made before black dots, pencil handwritings or fading colours were imitated without the slightest difference. Also researchers had to select the papers with the texture most similar to the original copy. “To the naked eye, these replicas are indistinguishable to the genuine ones, even if placed together with the originals,’ says Dai.

Members of the MUST Library selected about 1,500 ancient Chinese maps from a total of 3,000 from libraries all around the world. Some of them locate the position of Macao, and some are relevant to the history of it. The Assistant of MUST University Librarian, Yang Xunling says, “We completed advance research and found that some museums have collected relevant maps extensively. Then we discussed the issue, made plans and budgets before an on-site survey. Each survey took us two to three weeks to read hundreds or a thousand maps and we still needed much time to sort out the data after coming back. The project has been conducted for about two years to date.”

The ancient maps displayed in Sir Robert Ho Tung Library are collections from Harvard Library, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Library of Congress, Stanford University Library and Biblioteca Estense Universitaria. These rare maps demonstrate Macao at its zenith.

This is considered so far the first single map of China made by the European. The map was drawn with West at the top, East at the bottom, North on the right and South to the left. The most prominent feature of this map is that the names of two capitals and thirteen provinces of Ming Dynasty were thoroughly marked on the map for the first time, and the outdated old place names were no longer used. On the right side of the map is the Great Wall of China with annotation and to the east of the Pearl River estuary is ‘Macoa’. MoBei grassland is on the rightmost of the map, with harts and tents shown in that area. There are 4 four-wheeled, wind-powered carts on the map, which is also imagined by the mapmaker.

From the left to the right on the top part of the map, the floor plans of Guia Fortress, São Tiago da Barra Fortress, Mount Fortress, Fortress of Our Lady of Bom Parto and San Francisco Fortress were drawn respectively. The whole map was produced from an aerial perspective, depicting streets and mountain peaks in the city of Macao. It was not labelled with the names of streets and buildings but purposefully marked with the numbers of 58 sites, including military facilities, hospitals, churches and geographical information, which explains how the British understood the situations of Macao on a very detailed level.
Before signing the Treaty of Nanjing, Macao made a big profit from its important business operation as it was the only Chinese port permitted to conduct the opium trade, which Britain had long coveted. In September 1808, the British army even attacked the Guia area of Macao; they did not withdraw until the Qing court stationed troops in Patane. During the Opium War, Macao Government fought together with the Qing court to repel British invasions.

Data: 7th November 2015 to 31st January 2016
Venue: Sir Robert Ho Tung Library
Time: 10:00am-7:00pm (Monday to Saturday)
          11:00am-7:00pm (Sunday)
Enquiries: 2837 7117
Free admission