| This dissertation examines the relationship between the expansion of publishing in the late Ming dynasty and changes in the nature and circulation of cartographic materials in East Asia. It is the first study of its type to take mass-produced printed maps in published books as its central focus, rather than court-centered cartography or other manuscript maps.;The dissertation argues that the transformations that took place during the publishing boom were primarily in the deployment of maps rather than in their technical qualities. It examines a series of path-breaking works in genres including geographical education, military affairs, and history to outline the ways in which maps achieved unprecedented penetration among published materials, even in the absence of the transformative theoretical and technological changes adopted by contemporary cartographers in parts of Europe.;By examining contemporaneous developments in neighboring Chosoˇn Korea and Japan, the dissertation demonstrates that it is profitable to consider the entire East Asian sphere in the early modern period, rather than focusing on countries as discreet units with individual cartographic histories. The dissertation also reexamines the place of Jesuit cartographic materials across these same political and cultural boundaries. It argues for a Ming-centric perspective on the Jesuit contribution to cartography, examining the Jesuits from a new perspective, as participants in the late Ming publishing boom. |
