Vicariati apostolici nell' India-Transgangetica - Girolamo Petri (1858)

Vicariati Apostolici nell' India-Transgangetica
Drawn/Published by: Girolamo Petri
Published in: Rome
Year: 1858–1859
From: L'Orbe Cattolico ossia Atlante Geografico Storico Ecclesiastico (The Catholic World: Historical Ecclesiastical Geographic Atlas)
Condition: Includes original hand-colouring to distinguish ecclesiastical territories.

A Rare Ecclesiastical Map of Southeast Asia
This unique 1858 map by the Roman cartographer Girolamo Petri offers a distinct perspective on Southeast Asia ("India Transgangetica" or "India beyond the Ganges"). Unlike standard political maps of the era that focused on colonial borders or local kingdoms, this chart is dedicated to the Catholic administrative divisions (Apostolic Vicariates) of the region.

The "Missionary" Geography
Taken from Petri’s monumental atlas of the Catholic world, the map illustrates how the Vatican viewed the East Indies during the mid-19th century. Instead of highlighting British or French empires, it uses distinct hand-colouring to demarcate religious jurisdictions, such as:

• The Vicariates of Tonkin and Cochin-China: Detailed divisions in modern-day Vietnam, which was a major focus of French missionary activity (and martyrdom) in the 1850s.
• The Vicariate of Siam: Covering the Kingdom of Thailand.
• The Vicariate of the Malay Peninsula: The region including Singapore and Malaya is shown as a single ecclesiastical unit. At this time, the Catholic mission in Singapore was growing rapidly under the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP), with the famous Church of the Good Shepherd (now Cathedral) having been elevated to a cathedral status just a few years prior in 1888 (retroactively, but the seat was established earlier).
  

A Snapshot of Faith and Diplomacy
Published in Rome by the Tipografia della Reverenda Camera Apostolica, this map represents the intersection of faith and geography. It captures the region just before the major French colonial expansion into Indochina, freezing in time the missionary networks that often operated independently of (or ahead of) state powers.