Libraries of western learning for China: circulation of western books between Europe and China in the Jesuit mission (ca.1650-ca.1750)

Abstract

This book continues the story of the circulation of Western books between Europe and China during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries within the context of the Jesuit missions in Asia. The first volume of this series analyzed how the books were selected and the logistics of their acquisition. This second volume describes how the Jesuits formed their libraries in China, with special reference to the strategy initiated by Niccolò Longobardo in 1610/1611 and implemented by Nicolas Trigault and Johann Schreck Terrentius between 1616 and 1619. This study begins with an overview of the characteristics of the missionary libraries, comparing them to the general characteristics of Jesuit libraries in Europe. After a critical reflection, a series of 'indirect' sources such as manuscript notations and references from letters are then employed to reconstruct the history of the Jesuit (and to a lesser extent, non-Jesuit) libraries in China.