Prospero Intorcetta
| Prospero Intorcetta | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Prospero Intorcetta in 1671 | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 殷鐸澤 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 殷铎泽 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Prospero Intorcetta (1625–1696), known to the Chinese as Yin Duoze, was an Italian Jesuit missionary to the Qing Empire.[1] He was the first to translate the works of Confucius in Europe.
Life
[edit]Prospero Intorcetta was born in Piazza Armerina, Sicily, on August 28, 1625.He joined the Jesuit order in 1642.[2]
Traveling with the Flemish Jesuit Philippe Couplet, he reached China in 1659. There, he mostly worked in the Jiangnan region around the lower Yangtze River.[3]
In 1665, he was exiled to Canton with 25 other missionaries; he returned to Rome in 1669 and travelled back to Hangzhou in 1676.[2]
He died on October 3, 1696. He is buried in Hangzhou.[4]
Works
[edit]
Intorcetta studied Chinese philosophy. In 1662, he published the study of the Four Books of Confucianism in a Latin work entitled The Meaning of Chinese Wisdom.[5] In 1667, he published the Politico-Moral Knowledge of the Chinese (Sinarum Scientia Politico-moralis).[1] In 1687, under Philippe Couplet's guidance, he worked with Christian Wolfgang Herdtrich and François de Rougemont to compile an influential Latin overview of Chinese history and translation of some of the Confucian classics under the title Confucius, Philosopher of the Chinese (Confucius Sinarum Philosophus) which was published in Paris.[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ a b Ronan, Charles E. (1988). "East Meets West: The Jesuits in China, 1582-1773 (page 262)" (PDF). Pihar. Retrieved November 20, 2025.
- ^ a b "Prospero Intorcetta - Jesuit missionary in China". Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christians. Retrieved November 20, 2025.
- ^ Brockey, p. 277
- ^ Crivelle, Gianni (11 November 2024). "Mattarella and missionaries in China". Asia News. Retrieved November 20, 2025.
- ^ Brockey, p. 279
- ^ Standaert, Nicolas (7 March 2023). "History of Sinology in Belgium Until the Open-Door Policy of the Late 1970s". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
Bibliography
[edit]- Brockey, Liam Matthew (2007), Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579-1724, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-02448-9.
- Intorcetta, Prospero; et al., eds. (1687), Confucius Sinarum Philosophus, sive, Scientia Sinensis Latine Exposita [Confucius, Philosopher of the Chinese, or, Chinese Knowledge Explained in Latin], Paris: Daniel Horthemels. (in Latin)
- Paternicò, Luisa M. (2011), "Prospero Intorcetta and the Confucius Sinarum Philosophus", The Generation of Giants: Jesuit Missionaries and Scientists in China [in] the Footsteps of Matteo Ricci, Trent: Centro Studi Martino Martini, pp. 61–68.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
 | This article about an Italian Roman Catholic cleric is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |