Marco Polo, Columbus and Old maps of China

The story of Marco Polo and his 24 years living in China is well known. Less well known is the huge impact that Marco Polo had on early Western mapping of China. In this talk, Vince Ungvary will take you through a journey in time – back to the 13^th Century when Polo visited China and show how maps made in the 15^th & 16^th century were heavily influenced by Marco Polo’s writings. Marco Polo's description of the Far East and its riches also probably inspired Christopher Columbus's decision to try to reach Asia by sea. Vince Ungvary is an Australian professional antique map dealer specialising in antique maps of China & Asia. Vince completed a Masters degree in Asian Studies and has been an avid map collector for more than 20 years. A member of the London based International Map Collectors Society, Vince has given talks on antique maps at International conferences and also at Fudan University, Shanghai. Vince will be displaying some stunning original antique maps of Asia and China from the 1600’s-1700’s as well as old maps of Shanghai, which will be available for purchase after the talk.ABOUT THE SPEAKER Vince Ungvary is a graduate of Asian studies from Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia where he majored in Modern Chinese History and Indonesian. Subsequent to his degree, Vince completed a postgraduate degree of Marketing at Edith Cowan University, Perth. Vince has worked in the Asian region since 1991, first in Jakarta, Indonesia and then for the last 10 years in Shanghai. Vince took up his passion of map collecting 15 years ago when he visited a house on the outskirts of New Delhi, only to find it was actually an antique bookstore and full of antique maps of Asia. Vince has since built his map collection, which focuses mainly on Antique maps of Asia and China from the 16th century to the 19th century (and a few rare ones of pre-1949 Shanghai) to a collection of around 800 maps.