James Ford Bell Library matteo ricci
Marguerite Ragnow: unique map collections
Thursday, June 17th, 2010 | News, Workshops | 2 Comments
On the afternoon of May 21st we walked to the James Ford Bell Library where curator Marguerite Ragnow was waiting for us for a presentation of the LIbrary’s wolrd-known collection of historical maps. The collection is arguably best known for being home to three rare portolan maps. As Lloyd Brown explains in his 1949 “The Story of Maps”, portolan charts “were much more than an aid to navigation; they were, in effect, the key to empire, the way to wealth”. This could well explain the rarity of these maps. One other factor is that these maps were made of vellum, which was expensive.
Ragnow is now planning the exhibition that will display - starting Sept. 15 - the most recent acquisition of the Library: the first map showing North America and China together on the same map, by Matteo Ricci. The exhibition will be entitled “Matteo Ricci and the Jesuits in China” and will likely generate a series of programs at UMN in relation to this piece. Still, and in the midst of the preparation to receive this rarity, Ragnow found the time to offer us a very informative tour of the Library’s historical maps. Pictured is one of the maps we saw: a beautiful plan of Istanbul published in a Jesuit Relation, Paris, 1668.
So you may want to plan a visit to UMN this Fall as starting in September, the already impressive James Ford Bell library collection will have Ricci’s new map, which may not be as valuable as the three portolan charts (valued at 3 to 10 million dollars, depending on the current market) but is unique in its meaning. Of the new historical map, James Bell said: “There couldn’t be any more iconic purchase for the library than the Ricci map”.
Marguerite Ragnow is the editor of TERRA INCOGNITAE a journal, published by the Society for the History of Discoveries.