This paper examines the circulation of Matteo Ricci’s, or “Li Madu’s” world maps in late Joseon Korea with particular emphasis on how Korean mapmakers and general intellectuals read and reproduced the foreign maps. Unlike the attempts of previous researchers to measure the “influence” of the Jesuit cartography upon indigenous map culture, this paper argues that the Jesuit maps were circulated in Joseon society not as ready-made entities, the meaning and the usages of which had been predetermined by the Jesuit authors. On the contrary, this paper examines the circulation and consumption of the Jesuit maps in late Joseon society as a process of creating a new entity called “Li Madu’s maps”–a cultural hybrid that Korean mapmakers made out of features from both the East Asian and the European cartographic traditions.