Book description

The Jesuit Archives in Rome (Archivum Romanum Societatus Iesu) contains books and manuscripts from the Ming (1368-1644) and Ching (1644-1911) dynasties on Chinese history, Chinese and Western philosophy, astronomy, and other sciences; volumes by Westerners introducing Christian thought to the Chinese; and works by Chinese Christians comparing what they were taught by the Jesuits with the Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian traditions. Many works deal with the famous Chinese rites controversy. There are also volumes that treat other religious groups such as the Muslims and the Jews. Some of the works include marginal notations by the emperors of China, famous Chinese scholars, and Jesuit missionaries. There are printed collections of memorials presented by the Jesuits to the emperors of the Ching dynasty, rare Chinese catechisms that were published in Manila, eighteenth century Japanese works, some of the first Chinese-Western dictionaries, and much more This catalogue consists of careful descriptions of the archival items in the Jesuit Archives described above with bibliographical sources pertaining to them. English is the main language, but Latin, other European languages, and Chinese (with characters) are also abundant.

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