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JESUIT MISSIONARIES IN SIAM -- BERNARDINO DELLA CHIESA (1644-1721)
An apparently autograph letter signed, in Latin, to [Philippe Couplet], Luvo [Lop Buri], 23 November 1682, 1¼ pages, folio (edges skilfully reinforced, very light and unobtrusive browning at folds). Green slipcase. Provenance: C.R. Boxer, 19 September 1960 (inscription inside slip case cover).
Writing from the province of Lop Buri in Siam, the Franciscan cleric Bernardino della Chiesa thanks Couplet for his past help in arranging his passage from Batavia; he reports favourably on the clerics he met there and on his discussions with them, and has sent some information to the Pope, promising to do all he can to arrange a visit to China and ensure a favourable reception. Whilst waiting to journey to China, della Chiesa and his companions are studying Chinese, and have had cordial and promising discussions with the King and notables.
Bernardino della Chiesa, a Franciscan cleric, left Europe for the East in 1680, journeying to India and Siam en route to China. He was shipwrecked near Batavia, arrived in Siam in 1682, and by 1684 was in Canton. In 1685 he was allotted the vast parish of Fubien, where he travelled widely. He later became the Bishop of Peking. When the present letter was written, Philippe Couplet had recently travelled from Macao to Rome, as procurator of the Church in China, in order to publicise and raise money for its mission, to recruit new Jesuit clerics to travel to China, and to publish tracts in his effort to aid the debate in Europe over Chinese Rites (see L.M. Brocky, Journey to the East, The Jesuit Mission to China 1579-1724, 2007, p.151).
Charles Ralph Boxer (1904-2000), prominent scholar and historian of early European expansion in Asia and Brazil, was Camoens Professor of Portuguese studies at King's College, London from 1947. His own notable collection of books and manuscripts was listed in a short-title catalogue, Bibliotheca Boxeriana (Macao, 1937). In his note accompanying the present manuscript, he leaves the instruction, 'In the event of my death, this document is to be given to James Cummins', his great friend and bibliographer. Published, Georges Mensaert, Relationes et epistolas primorum Fratrum Minorum Italorum in Sinis, saeculis XVII et XVIII ..., Rome, 1961, vol VI, I, pp.455-458.
An apparently autograph letter signed, in Latin, to [Philippe Couplet], Luvo [Lop Buri], 23 November 1682, 1¼ pages, folio (edges skilfully reinforced, very light and unobtrusive browning at folds). Green slipcase. Provenance: C.R. Boxer, 19 September 1960 (inscription inside slip case cover).
Writing from the province of Lop Buri in Siam, the Franciscan cleric Bernardino della Chiesa thanks Couplet for his past help in arranging his passage from Batavia; he reports favourably on the clerics he met there and on his discussions with them, and has sent some information to the Pope, promising to do all he can to arrange a visit to China and ensure a favourable reception. Whilst waiting to journey to China, della Chiesa and his companions are studying Chinese, and have had cordial and promising discussions with the King and notables.
Bernardino della Chiesa, a Franciscan cleric, left Europe for the East in 1680, journeying to India and Siam en route to China. He was shipwrecked near Batavia, arrived in Siam in 1682, and by 1684 was in Canton. In 1685 he was allotted the vast parish of Fubien, where he travelled widely. He later became the Bishop of Peking. When the present letter was written, Philippe Couplet had recently travelled from Macao to Rome, as procurator of the Church in China, in order to publicise and raise money for its mission, to recruit new Jesuit clerics to travel to China, and to publish tracts in his effort to aid the debate in Europe over Chinese Rites (see L.M. Brocky, Journey to the East, The Jesuit Mission to China 1579-1724, 2007, p.151).
Charles Ralph Boxer (1904-2000), prominent scholar and historian of early European expansion in Asia and Brazil, was Camoens Professor of Portuguese studies at King's College, London from 1947. His own notable collection of books and manuscripts was listed in a short-title catalogue, Bibliotheca Boxeriana (Macao, 1937). In his note accompanying the present manuscript, he leaves the instruction, 'In the event of my death, this document is to be given to James Cummins', his great friend and bibliographer. Published, Georges Mensaert, Relationes et epistolas primorum Fratrum Minorum Italorum in Sinis, saeculis XVII et XVIII ..., Rome, 1961, vol VI, I, pp.455-458.
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