A Study of 16th Century Western Books on Korea: The Birth of an Image

I. Introduction
Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum orbis terrarum, one of the most definitive world maps of the 16th century, positioned the Far East at the right uppermost corner, the most distant region from the Iberian Peninsula. This was indicative of how little medieval Europe understood about the vast continent that lay to it's east. Subsequent European maps of the late 16th century demonstrated considerably more accuracy and detail in their treatment of the Far East, and to a large measure this development was due to the efforts to discover the "Indias," the spread Catholicism to the pagan world, and typological innovations.

As new sources of information became available under this backdrop, Europeans began to overcome the limitations of medieval knowledge of the Far East, replacing it with a more modernistic understanding of the region. The 16th century was not only the period during which Europeans steadily began to amass empirical knowledge about the Far East, but also the first time since Marco Polo's return from his historical travels to China that information on Korea began to disseminate throughout Europe. Although Korea was mentioned in only a handful of manuscripts and publications of the time, these efforts nevertheless lay the foundation for western literature on Korea up to the 19th century. Based on these accounts, the West was able to formulate an image of Korea, even before its ports were officially opened to foreign trade in the centuries to come.

The purpose of this article is to introduce 16th century European literature on Korea and to examine how Korea is depicted in these documents. This examination of 16th century western literature on Korea will yield valuable insight into 'the birth of a national image,' which has in recent years emerged as an important facet of studies in international history. The authors note that since the primary objective of this study is the introduction of newly discovered literature on Korea, materials will be discussed in the order of their respective dates of publication.

Scholarly research works on the process by which Korea was introduced to Europe have been few and far between, although passing references to Korea have been made in bibliographical studies as well as numerous studies pertaining to maritime records and Jesuit letters. Henri Cordier of France, Armando Cortesao of Portugal, and C. R. Boxer of England do provide sketchy overviews of how Korea was first introduced to the Europeans, as part of their research on medieval records and navigational logs of the 16th century. Donald Lach's comparatively recent study provides a comprehensive bibliographical examination of western literature on Asia, but only post 17th century works on Korea, such as those by Luis de Guzman, Martino Martini, and Hendrik Hamel, are listed. The situation in Korea fared no better. In 1931 and in 1935 Horace Underwood published the first comprehensive bibliography of old books on Korea written in western languages, and in 1963 M. Gompertz introduced a more extensive list, supplementing Underwood's earlier work. Although these bibliographies are invaluable source of information on western literature on Korea, they, nonetheless, leave much to be desired. For instance, both Underwood and Gompertz list the letters of Father Gregorio de Cespedes, dated 1593, as the earliest western document related to Korea, and both leave out a considerable amount of material on Korea within 16th century European travel literature and the early Jesuit letters.