Colour Our Collections for Chinese New Year!
In the 17th century Jesuit missionaries travelled back to Europe over land through China collating information and knowledge on the history and culture of the East. On their return they shared their experiences with Athanasius Kircher, who compiled this information and amazing illustrations of a world very different to his own. He produced the fascinating tome China Illustrata which was originally published in Latin in 1667. The copy in Strathclyde’s collection is the Dutch translation Toonneel van China printed in 1668.
Illustrations from Kircher’s Toonneel van China, showing the principal deities of the Chinese, form the theme of our contribution to the international #ColorOurCollections week on social media 4th-8th February 2019 in honour of Chinese New Year that begins this week! We invite you to download and colour the images and share them on social media tagging us @StrathArchives and including the tag #ColorOurCollections.
