One of the most valuable maps in our collection is the Ruggeri map. The only other extant copy is in the Jesuit Archives in Rome. It was printed without any indications of mapmaker, publisher, or place of issue. The map was attached to an intelligence report written by Michele Ruggieri, an early Jesuit missionary, around 1588. Apart from the geography, it describes the administration regions of Ming in a table. It also marks the first Jesuit mission and church established at Zhaoqing in Guangdong by Ricci and Ruggieri, annotated in Latin "ecclesia patrum societatis" (Church of the Jesuit Fathers).

The Selden Map is one of the earliest Chinese maps to reach Europe; it was acquired by John Selden, a London lawyer, in the 17th century. Its significance was not explored until 2008, when American scholar Robert Batchelor rediscovered the map in Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. The map covers the broad area of China, East Asia and Southeast Asia; it also features shipping routes radiating from Quanzhou, Fujian, making it the earliest example of Chinese merchant cartography, and indicating the extent of China's interaction with the world. Although its exact origins are unknown, recent scholarship suggests that it was probably produced in the early 17th century by a Chinese mapmaker based in Southeast Asia.