- Giulio Alenio
Giulio Alenio (often spelled Giulio Aleni; Chinese: 艾儒略;
1582 -June 10 ,1649 ) was an Italian Jesuitmissionary and scholar.He was born at
Brescia , in Italy, and died at Yanping, China. He became a member of theSociety of Jesus in 1600, and was distinguished for his knowledge ofmathematics andtheology .He entered the
Society of Jesus and was sent to the East. He landed atMacau in 1610, and while waiting a favourable opportunity to penetrate intoChina busied himself for three years in teachingmathematics .His thirty years' residence in China was marked by unceasing zeal and considerable success. He adopted the dress and manners of the country, was the first Christian missionary in
Kiangsi , and built several churches inFujian . He wrote in Chinese a life ofJesus (Pekin, 1635-1637, 8 vols.; often reprinted, e.g. in 1887 in 3 vols., and used even by Protestant missionaries) and a cosmography ("Iche fang wai ki Hang-chow", 1623, 6 vols.), which was translated intoManchu under the title "The True Origin of 10,000 Things," a copy of which was sent fromBeijing to Paris in 1789. Alenio died atFuzhou in 1649.He was called "
Confucius from the West". He was known to the Chinese people as 艾儒略.He was sent as a
missionary toChina in 1610 and while waiting atMacau for a favorable opportunity to enter the country he published his "Résultat de l'observation sue l'éclipse de lune du 8 Novembre, 1612, faite a Macao" ("Mémoires de l'Acad. des Sciences", VII, 706.) After his arrival in China, he preached in the provinces ofXan-si andFi-Kien .He published many works in Chinese on a variety of topics. Among the most important are a controversial treatise on the Catholic Faith, in which are refuted what he saw as the principal errors of the Chinese; "The True Origin of All Things"; and "The Life of God, the Saviour, from the Four Gospels". There is a complete list of Alenio's works in
Carlos Sommervogel .References
*1911
*Sommervogel, Carlos, "Bibliotheque de la Campagnie de Jesus", I, 157 sq.
*Pfister, S.J., "Bibliogr. des Jesuites Chinois miss."
*Cordier, "Essai d'une bibliogr. des ouvr. publ. en Chine par les Eurpeens" (Paris 1883).
*"This article incorporates text from the 1913 "Catholic Encyclopedia " article " [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_%281913%29/Giulio_Alenio Giulio Alenio] " by Joseph M. Woods, a publication now in thepublic domain ."
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
