Antique copper engraved map of Asia, from Persia to China, illustrating various routes of travel across the continent - Marco Polo, Jesuits, etc. The map was published in Kircher's 'China Illustrata' in 1667.

This fascinating map covers an immense area and depicts at least four routes available to Europeans for eastern travel during the 17th century. The northernmost originates north of an irregularly shaped Caspian Sea and meanders through the region historically known as Tartary before ending at the Great Wall. The southernmost route starts in the Persian Gulf and makes land near Mumbai, before proceeding overland into the mountains of Nepal. A sea route through the Strait of Malacca, and other overland routes through India, China, and Myanmar are also shown.
In addition to transportation routes, interesting topographical details such as mountains and deserts are shown alongside locations of cities, rivers, and even yurts in the northern steppes – all items of importance to a possible traveler or armchair geographer.
The map was probably engraved by someone working for Johannes Janssonius.

Athanasius Kircher was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works, most notably in the fields of comparative religion, geology, and medicine. Kircher has been compared to fellow Jesuit Roger Joseph Boscovich and to Leonardo da Vinci for his enormous range of interests, and has been honored with the title "Master of a Hundred Arts". He taught for more than 40 years at the Roman College, where he set up a wunderkammer. A resurgence of interest in Kircher has occurred within the scholarly community in recent decades.

Kircher claimed to have deciphered the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptian language, but most of his assumptions and translations in this field were later found to be incorrect. He did, however, correctly establish the link between the ancient Egyptian and the Coptic languages, and some commentators regard him as the founder of Egyptology. Kircher was also fascinated with Sinology and wrote an encyclopedia of China, in which he noted the early presence there of Nestorian Christians while also attempting to establish links with Egypt and Christianity.....Edward W. Schmidt, referred to Kircher as "the last Renaissance man".
In 'A Man of Misconceptions', his 2012 book about Kircher, John Glassie writes that while "many of Kircher's actual ideas today seem wildly off-base, if not simply bizarre," he was "a champion of wonder, a man of awe-inspiring erudition and inventiveness," whose work was read "by the smartest minds of the time.".... [from Wikipedia.]