The Selden Map of China

Robert Batchelor and David Helliwell (University of Oxford)

The Selden map of China is one of the first Chinese maps to reach Europe. It came into the Library in 1659 from the estate of the London lawyer John Selden, who must have acquired it by 1653 at the latest, as in a codicil to his will dated that year he describes the Map and an accompanying compass as having been “taken both by an englishe comander”.