An introduction of the valuable and rare antique maps of Vietnam in the XV century

Abstract

A collection of 24 maps in the Study of Vietnam’s portolan in the XV century (Étude sur un portulan annamite du XVe siècle) written in French language, by French scholar G. Dumoutier, was finished in August, 1895. The full version of this study published in the ‘Bulletin of Historical and Descriptive Geography’, No 2/1896 (Bulletin de géographie historique et descriptive, No2 - 1896) was highly appreciated and the author G. Dumoutier was awarded the Jomard Prize by Geographical Society in 1897. This is a valuable and rare collection of maps, few people know and can access it in full version possibly because it’s a study by a French and published in French bulletin too long ago, and as it doesn’t exist in Vietnam yet.

According to Prof. Trần Nghĩa, a former Director, Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies, this collection of maps has been in archives in France under the code of Paris.BN.G FF.3677. The authors (Bửu Cầm, Đỗ Văn Anh, Phạm Huy Thúy) of the Book of ‘Hồng Đức bản đồ’ (Hong Duc maps, Saigon, Department of National Education, 1962, p.XII) said that this collection of maps couldn’t be found in all libraries in Saigon. However, we have the print extracts from the above mentioned bulletin consisting of full text of this study and 24 maps, presented by a French friend. We also realized that the collection of maps are attached as an appendix of the study published in the Bulletin of Historical and Descriptive Geography, No2, 1896 that is kept in the Social Sciences Library, Institute of Social Sciences Information, Hanoi.