Back in Rome, Kircher collected all the information he could gather from Jesuits in China, publishing this massive encyclopedia on China, Tibet, India, Korea and Japan. It contains two notable early maps, numerous portraits, and an introduction to Sanskrit and Chinese characters. On the frontispiece, Matteo Ricci is shown on the right, and Adam Schall on the left. A foldout map of Asia depicts the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, China, Japan and Korea. Kircher’s second map is of China itself. Europeans were beginning to recognize that Chinese history was as ancient as Egypt’s, and that the cultural achievements of the peoples of Asia were equal to their own.