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Part of
Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond: A millennium heritage
Edited by Francesco Stella
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXIV] 2024
► pp. 394–415

Chapter 19
Central and East Asia

| Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

This contribution brings a tentative overview of the many images of Asia in the Latin literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, where it constituted a parallel circuit of knowledge alongside works in the vernacular. Here especially the Jesuits would, during ca. 2 centuries, unfold their manifold activities, also in many scientific fields, and observed and studied in depth fundamental aspects of Chinese culture, on which they produced many reports, monographs etc., always in manuscript form, mostly in Latin, in view of a European public, both Jesuit and scholarly. Another voluminous part of their Latin writings consisted of contemporary history (geography, cartography etc.) of China, constituting the framework in which their missions had to work.

Keywords: Central Asia, Japan, China, the mission’s framework, travelogues, monographs, translations, mission reports, reception in Europe, figurism
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Japan
  • China
  • Original compositions
  • The scholarly and scientific achievements of the Jesuits in China
    • Astronomy
  • Geography, ethnography & cartography
  • Natural history
  • Medicine
  • Chinese historiography and history
  • Philosophy (sensu latiore)
    • Linguistics
  • Translations from Chinese materials
  • European publications composed by European scholars, mostly relying on Jesuit contacts
  • Concluding observations
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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