1.Introduction

Basilio Brollo (Chinese name Ye Zunxiao 葉尊孝 or Ye Zongxian 葉宗賢; Gemona, Italy, 1666–Xi’an, China, 1704) was an Italian Franciscan missionary who spent part of his life in China, where he was actively dedicated to the missionary work across multiple provinces. Brollo’s arrival in China as a Franciscan missionary is dated to 1684, during the early Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Throughout his long missionary experience in China, which lasted until his death in Xi’an in 1704, he travelled extensively across many Chinese provinces. Brollo began his work and the study of the Chinese language after his arrival in Guangdong province, where he served as Apostolic Vicar of the Catholic province of Fujian. Between 1684 and 1690, he travelled along the coastal areas of Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Nanjing, and Shanghai. He spent two years in Guangdong, after which he moved to Nanjing, where he is believed to have compiled the two versions of his Chinese-Latin dictionary. In 1696 he was appointed vicar apostolic of Shaanxi province, where he moved in 1701. After visits to Beijing, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, and Shanxi (Mensaert, Margiotti & Rosso 1961Mensaert, Georgius, Fortunato Margiotti & Antonio Sixto Rosso 1961 Sinica Franciscana. Volumen VI. Relationes et epistolas fratrum minorum italorum in Sinis (saeculis XVII et XVIII). Roma: apud Collegium S. Antonii.: 796), in 1701 he relocated to Jinan and later to Xi’an, where he passed away in 1704 (Bertuccioli 1972Bertuccioli, Giuliano 1972 “Basilio Brollo”. Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 15. 454–456. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. Available at: https://​www​.treccani​.it​/enciclopedia​/basilio​-brollo​_(Dizionario​-Biografico)/ (last access: November 29, 2024).).22.Brollo’s biography by Bertuccioli can be also consulted at https://​www​.treccani​.it​/enciclopedia​/basilio​-brollo​_(Dizionario​-Biografico)/, last accessed November 29, 2024; see also Polmonari (2009)Polmonari, Simonetta 2009 S. Padre Basilio Brollo da Gemona in dialogo con la cultura cinese. Vicenza: LIEF.. Brollo authored two versions of the Dictionarium sinico-latinum (Brollo 1694Brollo, Basilio 1694 Hanzi xiyi 漢字西譯 — Sinicarum Litterarum Europea Expositio Dictionarium sinico—latinum suis fratribus sinicae missionis tyronib. Elaboratum per frem Basilio a Glemona ordinis minorum strictioris observantiae Venetae D. Antonijs Provinciae alumnum: Anno Dei MDCXCIV. Manuscript copy “Rinucci 22”.), the first organised by radicals, and the second (Brollo 1699Brollo, Basilio 1699 Dictionarium secundum Sinico Latinum a Reverendissimo Patre Basilio a Glemona ordinis minorum Vicario Apostolico Provinciae Xèn Si¯ in Regno Sinarum, elaboratum. Manuscript copy “Vaticana. Estr. or. 3”.), alphabetically arranged according to the romanisation of Chinese characters, dated 1699. In the version ordered by radicals, the dictionary includes approximately 7,000 Chinese characters with their romanisation(s) — covering both cases of variant pronunciations with the same meaning and different pronunciations for different meanings — graphical variants, Latin definitions, Chinese glosses, and Chinese examples. The text is regarded as one of the most significant earliest dictionaries compiled by a foreign missionary in China: Brollo’s Chinese-Latin dictionary is a lexicographical milestone, with fundamental importance from various perspectives. As many other materials considered within the framework of missionary linguistics (Masini 2017Masini, Federico 2017 “Chinese Missionary Linguistics: A New Field of Research”. Chinese Missionary Linguistics ed. by Davor Antonucci & Pieter Ackerman, 15–31. (= Leuven Chinese Studies, 34). Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, KU Leuven.: 15–17), it serves, among others, as an essential tool for interpreting different peculiarities of the Chinese lexicon and its periodisation. This article firstly introduces the toponymic categories included in the 1694 version of the dictionary, based on its manuscript copy preserved at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, Italy, known as Rinuccini 22.33.For extant manuscript copies of Brollo’s dictionary, see Masini (2000)Masini, Federico 2000 “Materiali lessicografici sulla lingua cinese redatti dagli occidentali fra ’500 e ’600: i dialetti del Fujian”. Cina 28. 53–79., Bussotti (2023)Bussotti, Michela 2023 “«Not Only Brollo»: Manuscripts of bilingual Chinese dictionaries and their layout”. Mastering Languages, Taming the World. The Production and Circulation of European Dictionaries and Lexicons of Asian Languages (16th–19th Centuries) ed. by Michela Bussotti & François Lachaud, 217–268. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient., and Raini (2025Raini, Emanuele 2025 (forthcoming). “Early Manuscript Chinese-European Dictionaries: A Glimpse into the Cross-linguistic Minds of Their Authors”. Polyglossia, Teaching and Contact across Early Modern Europe and Asia. Polyglot Encounters, ed. by Donatella Montini et al. Turnhout: Brepols., forthcoming). If not otherwise specified, in this work the reference to Brollo’s Dictionarium sinico-latinum is to the aforementioned edition. The choice of Rinuccini 22 copy, among others, is based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the fact that the radical order copy, dated 1694, should be considered as preceding the alphabetical order copy, dated 1699, as well as some statements by Basilio Brollo in written testimonies. Most importantly, the Rinuccini 22 copy is the most complete, neat, and plausibly the most similar to the first compilation by Brollo himself, according to specific elements it contains and its layout.44.The research team is working on a critical edition of the text, to be tentatively published in 2025, in which more detailed elements will be presented about this copy and the relevant hypotheses. The article provides a general description of the principal toponyms included in the Dictionarium sinico-latinum and an overview of the textual, graphical, and linguistic categories that Brollo adopted, which make the majority of toponyms easily searchable in his work. Secondly, due to the high number of rivers and hydronyms found in the text, the article focuses on a preliminary analysis of these terms according to their Chinese, Latin, and romanised renditions. The objective of comparing selected relevant terms with the corresponding toponymic occurrences in chosen Chinese lexicographical sources is to point out or confirm Chinese sources Brollo could have used as references when compiling the manuscript.

This article concludes with a discussion of the lexicographical and lexicological efforts involved, as well as the intercultural dialogue reflected in them, highlighting Brollo’s personal and original contribution to the description of 17th-century Chinese geographical elements.

2.Toponyms in Brollo’s 1694Brollo, Basilio 1694 Hanzi xiyi 漢字西譯 — Sinicarum Litterarum Europea Expositio Dictionarium sinico—latinum suis fratribus sinicae missionis tyronib. Elaboratum per frem Basilio a Glemona ordinis minorum strictioris observantiae Venetae D. Antonijs Provinciae alumnum: Anno Dei MDCXCIV. Manuscript copy “Rinucci 22”. Dictionarium sinico-latinum: an overview

The focus of the first section is to offer a general description of the principal toponyms included in the Dictionarium sinico-latinum, in order to give an overview of the textual, graphical, and linguistic categories that Brollo adopted, which make the majority of toponyms easily searchable in his work. The study of cartography and toponomastics is a field of scientific research that holds great fascination and recognition.55.See, for the most recent works: Caboara (2022)Caboara, Marco 2022 Regnum Chinae. The Printed Western Maps of China to 1735. Leiden & Boston: Brill. , Schottenhammer (2012Schottenhammer, Angela 2012 “The ‘China Seas’ in World History: A General Outline of the Role of Chinese and East Asian Maritime Space from its Origins to c. 1800”. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures 1:2. 63–86. ; 2008Schottenhammer, Angela ed. 2008 The East Asian “Mediterranean”: Maritime Crossroads of Culture, Commerce and Human Migration. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.), Rui Feng (2018Rui Feng, Linda 2018 “Can Lost Maps Speak? Toward a Cultural History of Map Reading in Medieval China”. Imago Mundi 70:2. 169–182. ), De Troia (2009)De Troia, Paolo ed. 2009 Giulio Aleni, Geografia dei paesi stranieri alla Cina. (= Collana Opera Omnia, 1). Brescia: Fondazione Civiltà Bresciana., Zhang (2015)Zhang, Qiong 2015 Making the World on Their Own. Chinese Encounters with Jesuit Science in the Age of Discovery. Leiden & Boston: Brill. , and Sen and Mair (2012)Sen, Tansen & Victor H. Mair 2012 Traditional China in Asian and World History. Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Asian Studies.. The contribution of foreign missionaries to the development and diffusion of Chinese cartography and toponomastics in European countries is of fundamental importance. According to Caboara (2022Caboara, Marco 2022 Regnum Chinae. The Printed Western Maps of China to 1735. Leiden & Boston: Brill. : 30), the first and most reliable map of China produced in Europe based on Chinese sources was probably printed in Italy on behalf of Jesuit missionaries around 1580. At the time, maps were not produced for commercial reasons; they were often engraved on title pages of Jesuit books and served as a consistent source of information, not only in terms of geographical descriptions of Chinese territories but also by incorporating the missionaries’ scientific knowledge. The long tradition of Chinese cartography compiled by foreign missionaries is rich in production and underwent significant evolution, from Marco Polo’s travels to “Catai” until the modern era, thanks to extensive collaboration between missionaries and Chinese intellectuals and scientists. The mutual influence and cooperation between foreign missionaries and Chinese intellectuals in the geographical description of Chinese territories have been demonstrated and thoroughly studied, highlighting the significant intercultural exchange between East and West in this scientific field since the mediaeval era (Cams 2017Cams, Mario 2017 Companions in Geography: East-West Collaboration in the Mapping of Qing China (c.1685–1735). East and West: Culture, Diplomacy and Interactions. Leiden & Boston: Brill.).On the Chinese side, cartography and map libraries have been considered of great importance since ancient times, primarily for administrative purposes (Caboara 2022Caboara, Marco 2022 Regnum Chinae. The Printed Western Maps of China to 1735. Leiden & Boston: Brill. : 38–63). Starting in the Song dynasty, central authorities established institutional bureaus responsible for collecting maps and data from local governments to create topographical descriptions of all the territories within the realm. This practice continued for centuries, up to the Qing dynasty, generating a vast collection of geographical information about the territories under Chinese rule. The circulation of Chinese maps in Europe had a notable impact on the production of Western maps of China, reaffirming the reciprocal influence between China and Europe in this field. Moreover, as indicated by Joseph Needham at the beginning of the volume on geography and cartography in Science and Civilisation in China, “geography is a subject which lies on the borderline between the natural sciences and the humanities” (Needham 1959Needham, Joseph 1959 Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 3: Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.: 497, in De Troia 2010De Troia, Paolo 2010 “L’imago mundi europea nella Cina del XVI e XVII secolo: alcuni problemi relativi alla traduzione del Zhifang waiji ”. La Cina e il mondo. Atti dell’XI convegno dell’Associazione Italiana Studi Cinesi, Roma 22–24 febbraio 2007 ed. by Paolo De Troia, 531–540. Roma: Edizioni Nuova Cultura.: 532): toponyms lend themselves to scientific/quantitative analysis, typical of geography, and the symbolic or religious interpretation, providing on the other hand information on cultural and historical aspects. The analysis of the Rinuccini 22 copy enables the identification of seven macro-categories of toponyms, classified as follows: river hydronyms, marine toponyms, names of lakes, oronyms, kingdom toponyms, names of Chinese provinces, and names of Chinese cities. This research begins with the examination of data sampling related to these categories, made easily accessible by the dual occurrence of all entries in both Chinese and Latin in Brollo’s work. According to its author, the dictionary was compiled to allow non-native Chinese speakers access to Chinese written texts.66.“Huiusq. enim Lusitanica, et hispanica lingua plura fue:ra conscripta, quo talium idiomatum imperitis parum deserviunt ideo ut unus Labor omnibus usui essĕ possit, Latino, omnibus communi idi:omate Sinicos caracteres explicare proposui: Serici vero Sinico Voca:bulario respondens necessarium usum habet, si quis Sinicos libros ve:lit evolvere” (Indeed, many works had already been written in Portuguese and Spanish, which are of little use to those unfamiliar with such languages. Therefore, in order that one work might be useful to all, I decided to explain the Chinese characters in Latin, a language common to everyone. Moreover, the Chinese vocabulary, corresponding to the Chinese of the Sericans, is essential for anyone who wishes to study Chinese books). (Brollo 1694Brollo, Basilio 1694 Hanzi xiyi 漢字西譯 — Sinicarum Litterarum Europea Expositio Dictionarium sinico—latinum suis fratribus sinicae missionis tyronib. Elaboratum per frem Basilio a Glemona ordinis minorum strictioris observantiae Venetae D. Antonijs Provinciae alumnum: Anno Dei MDCXCIV. Manuscript copy “Rinucci 22”., p. 1). However, in the analysis of Brollo’s work, the most interesting aspect that greatly facilitates the semantic analysis of the included toponymic terms is the presence of Chinese glosses, located on the left side of the row after the Latin definition which, if present, immediately indicate the semantic category to which the toponyms belong. Not all the toponyms included in the dictionary have a Chinese gloss, which immediately makes it easy to understand that the terms belong to a toponymic category. However, after the analysis of toponyms belonging to the abovementioned seven macro categories included in the Dictionarium sinico-latinum, we can affirm that the majority of toponyms included in the dictionary have a Chinese gloss, which makes them easy to find in the manuscript.

3.Hydronyms and their relevant information in Rinuccini 22: a preliminary analysis

Table 1 reproduces the structure of the Dictionarium sinico-latinum, excluding information about the Chinese synonyms, and provides six examples of entries that, based on the Chinese glosses proposed by Brollo, allow for the immediate identification of the toponymic category to which each character belongs. The structure of Table 1 is as follows: column 1 lists the Chinese characters, ordered according to the radical table placed at the beginning of the text, with the romanisation provided by Brollo77.For a complete analysis of Brollo’s romanisation system see Raini (2010Raini, Emanuele 2010 Sistemi di romanizzazione del cinese mandarino nei secoli XVI–XVIII. PhD Thesis. Roma: Sapienza Università di Roma.: 195–201). and its contemporary pinyin transcription; column 2 indicates the location of the character in the dictionary, i.e., page number and row; column 3 identifies the semantic category of the toponym; column 4 includes the Latin definition of the character, along with any additional information that may not belong to the toponymic definition — the Latin definition section often includes some other information that does not belong to the toponymic definition; column 5 includes the accompanying Chinese glosses by Brollo; column 6 provides the translation of the glosses into English.

Table 1 describes some examples of the toponyms included in Brollo’s work, which are accompanied by a gloss that defines the semantic category to which the term is related. By analysing the glosses connected to toponyms that Brollo included in his work, it is possible to highlight the number of Chinese glosses accompanying the toponyms. Table 2 describes Chinese glosses related to toponyms as follows: column 1 includes the categories of toponyms accompanied by a Chinese gloss included in Brollo’s work; column 2 presents the related Chinese glosses by Brollo, and column 3 highlights the number of Chinese glosses included in the dictionary according to each toponymic category. Moreover, the names of provinces included in the dictionary are never accompanied by glosses that indicate their semantic category.

As an example, let us briefly analyse si 泗 (entry no. 1). The character, as indicated in the Latin gloss, is a river name (“Nomen fluminis”). It is probable that Brollo relied on the detailed description of the Si River that can be found in Xiesheng pinzijian 諧聲品字箋 (Annotated lexicon of phonetic series, frequently abbreviated as Pinzijian), a Chinese lexicographical text authored around 1673 by Yu Desheng 虞德升 (exact dates unknown), printed in the twenty-third year of the reign of Kangxi (1684). On folio no. 1418 of Xiesheng pinzijian (Yu Desheng 1684Yu Desheng 虞德升 1684  Xiesheng pinzijian 諧聲品字箋. China: n.p., engraved in the 12th Year of Kangxi (1673), reprinted in the 23rd Year (1684).), Si 泗 is described as the “name of a river, originating from Yanzhou prefecture88. Yanzhou fu 兗州府 was a prefecture established from the Ming to the Qing dynasty in Shandong province. […] it originates from the Mountain Peiwei 陪尾, and its name derives from the presence of four springs” (“水名發源兗州府[…]東陪尾山其源有四因以為名”).

Notwithstanding, we are not able to infer which sources Brollo consulted for the additional source he attributes to the river (“quinque fontes”) in the Latin gloss, while four are indicated in Xiesheng pinzijian. A hypothesis is that Brollo might be confusing the Si River with the Yi River (Yi he 沂河); the last belongs to the same system of the former, and there is actually a theory about the “five sources” of the Yi River (Dong and Liu 2018Dong Fangjun 董方军, Liu Zhongxiao 刘忠孝 2018 “Yi he zhengyuan kao 沂河正源考”. Chunqiu 春秋 2. 63., 63), namely Tanglang River (Tanglang he 螳螂河, also known as Canglang River, or Canglang he 沧浪河), Xujiazhuang River (Xujiazhuang he 徐家庄河), Dazhangzhuang River (Dazhangzhuang he 大张庄河), Nanyan River (Nanyan he 南岩河, also known as Renli River, or Renli he 仁里河), and Gaocun River (Gaocun he 高村河, also known as Tianzhuang River, or Tianzhuang he 田庄河). In any case, other than the use of the character as a hydronym, Brollo also adds another meaning for si 泗, explaining the compound in which it occurs as a second character: “ty^’ sụ/. Ti^’ est humor, qui ex oculis fluit, sụ/ vero, qui e naribus”. Tisi 涕泗 is actually a term referring to tears and mucus, and Brollo explains that each character of the disyllabic compound has its own separate meaning, indicating ti 涕 as “humour” flowing out of the eyes, and si 泗 as “humour” from the nose: the same information can be found in the Xiesheng pinzijian, where Yu Desheng records “又涕泗，目出曰涕，鼻出曰泗” (it also [appears] in the term tisi 涕泗; when it comes out of the eye it is called ti, if from the nose it is si).

In addition to the lexicographical categories and the categorisation process, as typical with most of the manuscripts of bilingual Chinese dictionaries compiled by Western missionaries starting from the end of the 16th century, information derived from these sources is multifaceted and provides other references. This is the case with the Latin definition included in the entry for Hang 杭 (Table 1, entry no. 2). The Latin definition of this entry not only offers a description of a toponym related to the Chinese city of Hangzhou, based on the Chinese disyllabic example proposed by the author in a romanised form, but also provides historical information about the Catholic community in the city. Brollo mentions one of his contemporary foreign missionaries in China, the Italian Jesuit Prospero Intorcetta (Yin Duoze 殷鐸澤, 1625–1696: Standaert 2001Standaert, Nicolas 2001 Handbook of Christianity in China, I , 635–1800. Leiden & Boston: Brill. : 185, 309, 313, 356, 391, 462) and the persecution against the Catholic community he was leading at the time. Moreover, Brollo includes noteworthy information about the Imperial decree issued by the Chinese Emperor Kangxi in 1692, the year when Brollo started the compilation of his Dictionarium sinico-latinum in Nanjing. Kangxi’s decree of toleration marked a significant turning point for Christianity in China (Litian 2021Litian, Swen 2021  Jesuit Mission and Submission: Qing Rulership and the Fate of Christianity in China, 1644–1735 . (= East and West, 9). Leiden & Boston: Brill.: 1–22), as it granted the Catholic community a degree of protection and allowed it to practise its faith more openly.

As previously mentioned, the Dictionarium sinico-latinum includes references to toponyms categorised into seven principal groups: rivers, seas, lakes, mountains, kingdoms, provinces, and cities. Specifically, the category of river names contains seventy-seven entries for hydronyms, with thirty-nine of these entries accompanied by the gloss shui ming (水名), meaning “river name”. The present preliminary analysis of the toponyms in Brollo’s work focuses on river names, as this category is the most numerically significant within the dictionary, leaving further examination for future research. River hydronyms can be identified through their Latin definitions using the following terms: flumen (‘river’, neuter noun of the third declension, eighteen entries), nomen fluminis (‘name of a river’, thirteen entries), quoddam flumen (‘a certain river’, in the nominative form, two entries), fluvius (another form for ‘river’, masculine noun of the second declension, four entries), quidam fluvius (‘a certain river’, twenty entries), nomen fluvii (‘name of a river’, thirteen entries), parva flumina (‘small rivers’, seven entries), fluminum ramis (‘branches of a river’, one entry) and rivuli ex magno flumen (‘streams from a great river’, one entry). Moreover, as hinted above, thirty-nine entries have a corresponding Chinese gloss describing the term as shui ming “水名” (meaning “name of a river”), but only twenty-six of these entries include a corresponding Latin definition specifically related to the description of a river. The analysis of river toponyms reveals another key characteristic of the author’s approach in compiling the Dictionarium sinico-latinum: the dictionary includes seventy-seven entries related to river hydronyms but only twelve of them have a specific reference to the geographical area the rivers belong to.

Table 3 describes the terms that offer the geographical localisation of the rivers with reference to Chinese provinces. Predictably, the twelve localised rivers’ toponyms share the same radical shui “水”, meaning water. Three of them are localised in the historical apostolic vicariate of Huguang (as further explained below), one of them in Hunan province, one in Shanxi, three in Shandong, one in Zhejiang, one in Sichuan, one in Henan, and one in the historical region of Jiangnan. It is also important to highlight that eight of these localised entries also include a Chinese gloss indicating the toponymic category ‘name of a river’ (namely: Fen “汾”, Si “泗”, Zhu “洙”, Luo “洛”, Huai “淮”, Xiang “湘”, and Lu “瀘”). The presence of these glosses confirms that the most prominent information about the characters’ definitions is their categorisation as river toponyms.

Table 3.Hydronyms and their geographical localisation with reference to Chinese administrative divisions

No	Chinese character, Brollo’s romanisation, and pinyin	Collocation	Latin definition and English translation	Localisation
1	汨 (miė˘) Mì	328/1	miė˘ lo^, flumen, quod Australem partem Provinciae Hu^ quang\, eluit: [‘Miluo (汨羅), a river that flows through the southern part of Huguang province’].	Huguang (湖廣), a historical region until 1667, including Hunan and Hubei provinces. This term also refers to a Catholic Vicariate in China including Hubei and Hunan provinces until 1856.*
2	汾 (fuen^) Fén	328/6	Quidam fluvius in provincia xan¯ si¯ [‘A certain river in Shanxi (山西) province’]	Shanxi
3	泗 (sụ/) Sì	332/1	Nomen fluminis. Quinque fontes in monte poei^’ moei^ xa¯, e quibus coalescit flumen, sụ/ in Provincia xan¯ tung¯: ty^’ sụ/. Ti^’ est humor, qui ex oculis fluit, sụ/ vero, qui e naribus: [‘Name of the river. Five springs from which the River Si (泗) merges in Shandong province. Tisi (涕泗): ti 涕 is the humour flowing out of the eyes, and si 泗 is the mucus flowing from the nose’].	Shandong
4	洙 (chu̇¯) Zhū	334/4	Quoddam flumen in Provincia xan¯ tung¯. Chu̇¯ sụ/. Locus ubi Confucius locabat: [‘A certain river in Shandong (山東) province. Zhu si (洙寺): a place where Confucius resided’].	Shandong
5	洛 (lȯ˘) Luò	334/6	Nomen fluminis. Lo˘ iang^. Quaedam Urbs. Lo˘ iang^ kiao^’: Pons magnus in Provincia hu^ quang\: [‘Name of a river. Luoyang (洛陽), a certain city. Luoyang qiao (洛陽橋): a big bridge in Huguang (湖廣) province’].	Henan
6	洧 (goei\) Wěi	334/10	Nomen fluminis, quod ex ho^ nan^ egreditur: [‘Name of a river that originates from Hunan (湖南)’].	Hunan
7	洩 (sie˘) Xiè	335/1	sie˘ky¯: flumen quoddam in Provincia Che˘’ kiang¯. Leu^ sie˘. Stillare diffluere: Secretum prodere. Sie˘ ky/’. Iram in aliquem evomere: Item: Evaporare: [‘洩溪 (Xiè xī) A certain river in Zhejiang (浙江) province. 漏洩 ** To drip, to flow. To betray a secret. 洩氣 (xièqì) to unleash one’s anger on someone. Also: to evaporate’].	Zhejiang
8	浪 (lang^) Làng	337/5 second definition	Nomen fluminis in Provincia xan¯ tung¯: [‘River in Shandong (山東) province’].	Shandong
9	淮 (hoai^) Huái	f. 341/9	Flumen in Provincia kiang¯ na^. Hoai^ ngan¯, Urbs in eadem Provincia [‘River in Jiangnan province. Huai’an (淮安): a city located in the same province’].	Jiangnan (historical region)
10	湘 (jiang¯) Xiāng	346/5	Fluvius in Australi parte Provinciae Hu^ quang\. Frigere: Cibos ad ignem componere: [‘River in the southern area of Huguang province. To cool. To cook food on the fire’].	Huguang
11	漢 (han/) Hàn	351/10	Fluvius in Provincia hu^ quang\. Tien¯’ han/. Coeli fluvius, seu via lactea: familia Imperialis, quae coepit regnare 206 annis anti Christi adventum: et duravit usque, ad 190 post nativitatem: hinc han/ jin^: Sinensis. [‘River in the southern area of Huguang province. Tianhan (天漢), Heavenly River, or the Milky Way. Imperial family, which began to reign 206 years before the coming of Christ, and lasted until 190 years after his birth: for this reason, Hanren (漢人), i.e., Chinese people’].	Huguang
12	瀘(lu^) Lú	f. 358/4	Quidam fluvius in Provincia Su/ chuen: quem qui tertia, vel 4.a luna pertranseunt, moriuntur [‘River in Sichuan (四川) province. Those who pass through the third or the fourth moon, die’].	Sichuan

*Cf. D’Arelli (1995D’Arelli, Francesco 1995 “La Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide e la Cina nei secoli XVII–XVIII: le missioni, la Procura ed i Procuratori nella documentazione dell’Archivio storico di Roma”. Annali dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”. Rivista del Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici e del Dipartimento di Studi e Ricerche su Africa e Paesi Arabi 55:2. 216–223. Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale.: 229), and Camps and McCloskey (1995Camps, Arnulf & Pat McCloskey 1995 The Friars Minor in China (1294–1955). Especially the Years 1925–55. Rome: General Secretariat for Missionary Evangelization/ General Curia, OFM/ New York: Franciscan Institute St. Bonaventure University.: 32).

**On folio 335, row no. 1, the Latin definition offers a disyllabic example romanised as “Leu^ sie˘”. Brollo probably refers to louxie “漏洩”, whose correct romanisation according to Brollo’s system should have been “Leu/sie˘”.

According to the Latin definition of entry no. 1 of Table 3, the character mi 汨 refers to the disyllabic name of the Miluo River (Miluo 汨羅,99.The modern name of the river is Miluo Jiang 汨羅江. It originates in Jiangxi province and flows across Hunan province. romanised by Brollo as miė˘ lo^). The entry records “Miluo, a river that flows through the southern part of Huguang province”. Brollo offers information about the river’s localisation, stating that it flows in the northern area of Huguang province. This aspect is particularly interesting because of the chronological evolution of the area’s name across centuries. Huguang was established as an administrative territory during the Ming dynasty, in 1376.1010.For a detailed historical evolution of the province’s name and territorial organisation, cf. the Harward China Historical GIS at https://​maps​.cga​.harvard​.edu​/tgaz​/placename​?fmt​=html​&n​=Huguang​&yr​=&ftyp​=&src= (last access: November 29, 2024). At the time, Huguang and other regions were reorganised into a provincial administration, with the capital in Wuchang prefecture (the modern Wuhan city, Hubei province: cf. D’Arelli 1995D’Arelli, Francesco 1995 “La Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide e la Cina nei secoli XVII–XVIII: le missioni, la Procura ed i Procuratori nella documentazione dell’Archivio storico di Roma”. Annali dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”. Rivista del Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici e del Dipartimento di Studi e Ricerche su Africa e Paesi Arabi 55:2. 216–223. Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale.: 229) In 1645, during the Qing dynasty, the area corresponding to modern-day Hunan and Hubei provinces was designated as the province of Huguang. However, in 1667, the Imperial government divided Huguang into two separate provinces, Hunan and Hubei. Despite this administrative change, Brollo’s definition of the geographical location of the Miluo River refers to Huguang province, which had already been abolished by the time he began compiling his dictionary, likely around 1692. This choice makes it possible to advance and confirm hypotheses about the Chinese and missionary sources Brollo used in the compilation of the dictionary. The friar’s choice of the name Huguang also reflects the administrative divisions of foreign missions in China as designated by the Catholic Church, which have continued over the centuries in the naming of the Apostolic Vicariates and provinces within Chinese territory. The Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (in Latin: Propaganda Fide) was established in 1622.1111.See also Metzler (1971Metzler, Josef 1971 “Foundation of the Congregation ‘de Propaganda Fide’ by Gregory XV”. Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide Memoria Rerum: 350 anni a servizio delle missioni, 1622–1972, vol. I:1. 79–111. Freiburg: Herder.: 79–111).

The Catholic dicastery was born in order to enhance and support the propagation of the Catholic faith in foreign countries, and to transform the colonial phenomenon into an ecclesiastical movement without the interference of foreign political powers, such as Spain and Portugal. In addition, the Roman Church wanted to send their missionaries abroad, directly subsidised by the Vatican, and it was moved by the need to establish an indigenous clergy and hierarchy. For this reason, in 1680 Propaganda Fide appointed Bernardino Della Chiesa (1644–1721) titular bishop of Argolis and sent him and four other Italian friars to China (Camps and McCloskey 1995Camps, Arnulf & Pat McCloskey 1995 The Friars Minor in China (1294–1955). Especially the Years 1925–55. Rome: General Secretariat for Missionary Evangelization/ General Curia, OFM/ New York: Franciscan Institute St. Bonaventure University.: 10). Friar Basilio Brollo took part in this first expedition and, once he arrived in Guangdong in 1684, started learning Chinese. In the period preceding the establishment of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, the Catholic Church administered its foreign missions through various missionary orders dedicated to this work. The Hunan Vicariate was created only in 1856, when Propaganda Fide decided to split Huguang into two different religious administrations, and Hubei and Hunan were established as separate vicariates (Camps and McCloskey 1995Camps, Arnulf & Pat McCloskey 1995 The Friars Minor in China (1294–1955). Especially the Years 1925–55. Rome: General Secretariat for Missionary Evangelization/ General Curia, OFM/ New York: Franciscan Institute St. Bonaventure University.: 33). Therefore, in his dictionary, Brollo continued the Catholic tradition of referring to Hunan as a geographical and administrative entity that historically belonged to the region of Huguang.

Interestingly, in entry no. 6 of Table 3, for the character wei “洧”, Brollo records: “Nomen fluminis, quod ex ho^ nan^ egreditur”, which means, “The name of a river that originates from Hunan [province]”. In this case, Brollo uses the name of the newly established Chinese province rather than the name of the Catholic vicariate.

Brollo himself, in the introduction to the dictionary found in one of the extant manuscript copies (Brollo 1699: fol. VIIIrBrollo, Basilio 1699 Dictionarium secundum Sinico Latinum a Reverendissimo Patre Basilio a Glemona ordinis minorum Vicario Apostolico Provinciae Xèn Si¯ in Regno Sinarum, elaboratum. Manuscript copy “Vaticana. Estr. or. 3”.), mentions that he consulted the Pinzijian, an indication further confirmed by the analysis of the entry for si 泗 discussed above. On folio no. 395 of Xiesheng pinzijian, Yu Desheng records “汨羅。汨與羅楚中之二水,” which can be translated as “Miluo. Mi and Luo are two rivers in Chu”. In this case, the Chinese author identifies Miluo as two distinct streams flowing together in the Hunan and Hubei provinces. The term Chu “楚” indeed refers to the ancient name of a Chinese kingdom during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (722–221 BC), which is also used to refer to the modern-day Hunan and Hubei provinces together. Pinzijian’s definition of Miluo localises the river in the same geographical area as Brollo’s Latin definition, but the former uses a different term to refer to Hubei and Hunan provinces. We can hypothesise that Brollo may have utilised the aforementioned Chinese source to compile this entry, while also opting to describe the geographical area where the river flows by using a more accessible term for the name of the province, aimed at foreign missionaries. To analyse the other potential Chinese sources that Brollo could have adopted for compiling his Dictionarium sinico-latinum, we can focus on three significant Chinese lexicographical works: these sources have played crucial roles in the development of Chinese lexicology and lexicography. In Shuowen jiezi 說文解字 (Explanation of simple and analysis of compound characters; Xu Shen 100 ca.Xu Shen 許慎 100 ca. Shuowen jiezi 說文解字.), the most important and oldest dictionary of graphic etymology compiled during the Han dynasty around 100 AD (Bottéro & Harbsmeier 2008Bottéro, Françoise & Christoph Harbsmeier 2008 “The Shuowen jiezi Dictionary and the Human Sciences in China”. Asia Major 21:1. 249–271.: 249) by Xu Shen 許慎 (ca. 58–ca. 147), the section dedicated to rivers, shui bu “水部”, records the character mi “汨” as “長沙汨羅淵，屈原所沉之水 […]”, which means “river in Changsha, the water where Qu Yuan sank”. In this dictionary, we find a localisation of the river according to the most important city of the Hunanese area where it flows, Changsha, the modern-day capital city of Hunan province. The Chinese source also provides information about the historical significance of the poet Qu Yuan’s (339–278 BC) death in the same river, but we do not find any hints of this information in Brollo’s work. The Zihui 字彙 (Characters’ collection) compiled during the Ming dynasty and edited in 1615Mei Yingzuo 梅膺祚 1615  Zihui 字彙. Twelve volumes. China: n.p., 43rd year of Wanli 萬曆. by Mei Yingzuo 梅膺祚 (exact dates unknown) represents one of the most important ancient Chinese dictionaries for the analysis of the development and evolution of the Chinese language. On folio no. 537 (Mei Yingzuo 1615Mei Yingzuo 梅膺祚 1615  Zihui 字彙. Twelve volumes. China: n.p., 43rd year of Wanli 萬曆.: 537), the entry mi “汨” is defined as: “汨水在羅故日汨羅今長沙屈潭也 [omissis]”, meaning “Mi River, formerly known as Luo and now as Miluo, located in the actual Changsha city, originally known as Tan”. Zihui describes the river as located in the city of Changsha, whose ancient name was Tanzhou 潭州 (Hanyu da cidian bianji weiyuanhui 1990Hanyu da cidian bianji weiyuanhui 汉语大词典编辑委员会 1990  Hanyu da cidian 汉大字典, vol. VIII. Chengdu: Sichuan cishu chubanshe 四川辞书出版社.: 1738). Finally, the Zhengzi tong 正字通, authored by Zhang Zilie 張自烈 (1597–1673), is a dictionary-style work that was first published in 1685, during the Qing dynasty; it is a comprehensive study of Chinese characters and their etymologies. The Zhengzi tong records on folio 1335 (Zhang Zilie 1685: 1335): “汨: 統志汨羅江名在湘陰縣北十里源出豫章流經 […]” (“The name of the Miluo River, as annotated in the comprehensive chronicles, originates ten li north of Xiangyin County and it flows through Yuzhang”). In this definition, the river is localised in one of Hunan’s counties, Xiangyin (Xiangyin xian 湘陰縣), which still retains this name today, flowing into Yuzhang 豫章 county, located in Jiangxi province.

During the same historical period, other missionaries were also engaged in compiling significant linguistic resources, which today serve as foundational milestones in lexicography and missionary linguistics. Among these valuable efforts by Western missionaries, the work of the Dominican Francisco Díaz (Su Fangji 蘇芳積, 1606–1646)1212.For a complete analysis of the dictionary see Zwartjes (2024)Zwartjes, Otto 2024 Missionary Grammars and Dictionaries of Chinese: The contribution of seventeenth century Spanish Dominicans. (= Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 131). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. . represents one of the most important (Masini 2005Masini, Federico 2005 “Chinese Dictionaries Prepared by Western Missionaries in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”. Encounters and Dialogues: Changing Perspectives on Chinese-Western Exchanges from the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries ed. by Wu Xiaoxin, 179–193. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag.: 179–193). In one manuscript copy of the Spanish-Chinese Vocabulario de letra China con la explicacion Castellana hecho con gran propriedad y abundancia de palabras por el Padre Don Francisco Diaz de la Orden de Predicadores ministro incansable en esto Reyno de China (1643 ca.Díaz, Francisco ca 1640-1641 Vocabulario de Letra China con la Explicacion Castellana hecho con gran propriedad y abundancia de palabras por el Padre F. Francisco Diaz de la Orden de Predicadores ministro incansable en esto Reyno de China. Staatsbibliothek in Berlin (Sign: Ms. sin. 13) (now in the Jagiellońska Library in Krakow). [Undated copy from the second half of the 17th century].), on page 416 the entry mi “汨” does not contain information about the river Miluo (Díaz 1640-1641Díaz, Francisco ca 1640-1641 Vocabulario de Letra China con la Explicacion Castellana hecho con gran propriedad y abundancia de palabras por el Padre F. Francisco Diaz de la Orden de Predicadores ministro incansable en esto Reyno de China. Staatsbibliothek in Berlin (Sign: Ms. sin. 13) (now in the Jagiellońska Library in Krakow). [Undated copy from the second half of the 17th century].: f. 416).1313.The manuscript copy is available for online consultation at https://​digital​.staatsbibliothek​-berlin​.de​/werkansicht​?PPN​=PPN3358707539​&PHYSID​=PHYS​_0416​&DMDID​=DMDLOG​_0002 (last access: November 29, 2024). See also Kuiper (2005)Kuiper, Koos 2005 Catalogue of Chinese and Sino-Western Manuscripts in the Central Library of Leiden University — Laidun daxue zong tushuguan cang Zhong-Xi wen chaoben yu shougao mulu 萊頓大學總圖書館藏中西文抄本與手稿目. (= Bibliotheca Universitatis Leidensis, codices manuscripti, 33). Leiden: Legatum Warnerianum in Leiden University Library.. In this case, the Dominican missionary selected other relevant information about the use of the character as a term referring to the verb “to dive into the water”.1414.The entry records: “Chin^’ miė˘. Hundinse=Zabullinse en el agua. ^ xuy\.=^. yu^ Cabullinse el pescado”. Finally, the Latin definition of entry no. 9 in Table 3, Huai “淮”, offers another interesting example regarding Brollo’s choice of the province’s name in which he locates the river. According to this definition, the Huai River flows through Jiangnan province, established in 1645 during the Qing dynasty and located in the lower Yangzi area. In the second year of the Shunzhi 順治 reign (1645), Nanzhili 南直隸 (Southern Zhili) was renamed Jiangnan province, with its capital in Jiangning prefecture, present-day Nanjing, in Jiangsu province. However, in 1667, the province was divided, and the Jiangsu Provincial Government was created to administer its territories. As with Brollo’s definition of the Miluo River, he localises the Huai River within a province that had already been officially abolished by the time he compiled his dictionary. Additionally, it is important to note that Brollo is thought to have compiled his dictionaries while residing in Nanjing, a city located in Jiangsu province. Jiangnan is also recorded as a name used in the official Catholic nomenclature for Chinese missions in the 17th and 18th centuries (Standaert 2001Standaert, Nicolas 2001 Handbook of Christianity in China, I , 635–1800. Leiden & Boston: Brill. : 386, 463, 546). According to the analysis, it is not possible to find an exact correspondence between the definitions of the entry Mi “汨” in the chosen Chinese sources and Brollo’s work. Moreover, as highlighted in the analysis of the entry Hang “杭”, Brollo included relevant historical information about his contemporary Chinese missionaries living in China and the situation Catholics were experiencing during his time there. This hypothesis is confirmed by the entry yu “余” (folio no. 6, row no. 10 of Rinuccini’s manuscript), in which the Italian friar offers notable information about another contemporary missionary in China, Friar Giovan Francesco Nicolai da Leonessa (Yu Tianming 余天明, 1656–1737) (Catto 2013Catto, Michela 2013 “Nicolai, Giovan Francesco”. Dizionario biografico degli italiani, LXXVIII. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. Available at: https://​www​.treccani​.it​/enciclopedia​/giovan​-francesco​-nicolai​_(Dizionario​-Biografico)/ (last access: November 29, 2024).). Nicolai was Brollo’s companion on his first expedition to China in 1684. Therefore, it is plausible to state that Brollo employed a certain degree of originality in compiling his lexicographical masterpiece (Raini 2025Raini, Emanuele 2025 (forthcoming). “Early Manuscript Chinese-European Dictionaries: A Glimpse into the Cross-linguistic Minds of Their Authors”. Polyglossia, Teaching and Contact across Early Modern Europe and Asia. Polyglot Encounters, ed. by Donatella Montini et al. Turnhout: Brepols.), rearranging and readapting the information in order to match the needs of its possible target users.

4.Conclusions

The analysis of toponyms, with a focus on hydronyms, in the Dictionarium sinico-latinum is an epitome and preliminary example of how it is possible to determine the modalities through which Brollo consulted and re-constructed Chinese sources: its first objective was obviously to provide as much of a complete lexicographical tool for the study of Chinese as possible, as shown in the case of si 泗. Brollo tried to take into account various Chinese sources, presenting information that would benefit Western readers, to whom the dictionary was primarily directed, as well as other cultural and, in a sense, religious considerations, as in the case of Huguang province. Even though we are undertaking at the moment further and more comprehensive study on Rinuccini 22, examples analysed above point in particular to Yu Desheng’s Xiesheng pinzijian and Zhang Zilie’s Zhengzi tong, composed only a few years before the compilation of Brollo’s Dictionarium sinico-latinum; Brollo thus made available to the reader, in a filtered and integrated form, some of the most updated Chinese lexicographical sources. As for the instance of the terminology of Huguang province and the adaptation by Brollo to the Western users’ needs, the process of compilation did not go without exceptions, as demonstrated in the aforementioned case of Wei “洧”. However, Brollo did not rely only on the most recent Chinese lexicographical sources, but also on much earlier ones, to firmly base the ground of his Dictionarium sinico-latinum on authoritative documents, dating back to Zihui or the renowned and chronologically distant Shuowen jiezi.

The lexicographical and lexicological efforts presented, as well as the historical and cultural implications involved in them, confirm Brollo’s outstanding position within the many lexicographical sources considered by the field of missionary linguistics, as well as his contribution to the description of 17th-century Chinese geographical elements. The accuracy of his efforts, not limited to the terms related to the Chinese geographical areas where he lived and worked, accounts for the many plans conceived for the publication of the Dictionarium sinico-latinum. In our future research, using toponyms or other categories of terms as a case study, we plan to better define the connection of Brollo’s dictionary to earlier Chinese sources and to also take into account later texts that adopted the Dictionarium as a reference, in the hope of better highlighting this text’s role in the context of the history of missionary linguistics.