Following direct maritime contact between the Iberian powers and the Ming Chinese empire in the sixteenth century, a profound encounter took place between two complex worldviews. As a result, a process of mutual repackaging, embedding, and borrowing took place that produced a wide range of novel artefacts, including maps, books, globes, and atlases. This article surveys the earliest stage of this encounter, illustrating how the bridging of two intellectual universes was not just shaped by the linguistic, conceptual, and social aspects of translation processes, but also by material factors such as printing techniques, map formats, and modes of presentation.