In the exhibit, this large folio was opened to a page illustrating the great variety of Chinese headgear. This showed how the same practices of collecting and categorizing applied to culture as to nature in the period. The volume is also full of much exciting Chinese nature such as these so-called “Flying Apes.” Jesuit missionaries deployed their knowledge of nature, particularly astronomy, to gain access to the Chinese court, while knowledge of Chinese nature was also popular in Europe.

Arnoldus Montanus, Atlas Chinensis, trans. John Ogilby (London: Johnson, 1671), 701. SCA Warner C 915.1 Og4 Shelf C.

Recommended further reading:
Athanasius Kircher, Athanasii Kircheri e Soc. Jesu China monumentis, qvà sacris quà profanis, nec non variis naturæ & artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata. Amsterdam: Waesberge, 1667.
Warner C 951 K632 Shelf D
Reed, Marcia, and Paola Demattè, eds. China on Paper: European and Chinese works from the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Los Angeles, Calif: Getty Research Institute, 2007.