@article{666662,
      recid = {666662},
      author = {Brook, Timothy,},
      title = {Mr. Selden's map of China : decoding the secrets of a  vanished cartographer /},
      pages = {xxiv, 211 pages, 16 pages of unnumbered plates :},
      abstract = {"Timothy Brook's award-winning Vermeer's Hat unfolded the  early history of globalization, using Vermeer's paintings  to show how objects like beaver hats and porcelain bowls  began to circulate around the world. Now he plumbs the  mystery of a single artifact that offers new insights into  global connections centuries old.In 2009, an extraordinary  map of China was discovered in Oxford's Bodleian  Library--where it had first been deposited 350 years  before, then stowed and forgotten for nearly a century.  Neither historians of China nor cartography experts had  ever seen anything like it. It was so odd that experts  would have declared it a fake-- yet records confirmed it  had been delivered to Oxford in 1659. The "Selden Map," as  it is known, was a puzzle that needing solving. Brook, a  historian of China, set out to explore the riddle. His  investigation will lead readers around this elegant,  enigmatic work of art, and from the heart of China, via the  Southern Ocean, to the court of King James II. In the story  of Selden's map, he reveals for us the surprising links  between an English scholar and merchants half a world away,  and offers novel insights into the power and meaning that a  single map can hold. Brook delivers the same anecdote-rich  narrative, intriguing characters, and unexpected historical  connections that made Vermeer's Hat an instant classic"--},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/666662},
}