Cover not available

Article published In: The History of Chinese Linguistics in East and West
Edited by Otto Zwartjes
[Historiographia Linguistica 51:1-3] 2024
► pp. 273–298

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

The connection between the Thesaurus rarissimus (Marsh 111) and the Dictionnaire Chinois & François (1670), the first printed Chinese dictionary in Europe

 | Guangdong University of Finance & Economics
Published online: 2 May 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.00179.rui
Abstract
The Dictionnaire Chinois & François appended to La Chine illustrée (1670) was the first printed Chinese-European dictionary, but its authorship and sources remain unknown. This article investigates this printed Chinese-French dictionary and argues that an Anonymous. 17th century (?). Thesaurus rarissimus, in quo explicantur ultra 10000. Characteres Chinensium lingua Hispan. in fol. chart. Serica. Bodleian Library, Ms Marsh 111. manuscript dictionary (Ms Marsh 111) kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford is related to it. The connection between the printed dictionary and Marsh 111 enables us to identify more entries in Dictionnaire Chinois & François with incorrect romanization and translations.
Résumé
Le Dictionnaire Chinois & François, annexé à La Chine illustrée (1670), fut le premier dictionnaire chinois-européen imprimé, mais son auteur et ses sources demeurent inconnus. Cet article examine ce dictionnaire chinois-français imprimé et soutient qu’un dictionnaire manuscrit anonyme (Ms Marsh 111), conservé à la Bodleian Library d’Oxford, lui est apparenté. Le lien entre le dictionnaire imprimé et Marsh 111 nous permet d’identifier d’autres entrées du Dictionnaire Chinois & François dont la romanisation et des traductions sont incorrectes.
Zusammenfassung
Das Dictionnaire Chinois & François im Anhang zu La Chine illustrée (1670) war das erste gedruckte chinesisch-europäische Wörterbuch, dessen Autorschaft und Quellen jedoch unbekannt sind. Dieser Artikel untersucht dieses gedruckte chinesisch-französische Wörterbuch und erbringt den Nachweis, dass es mit einem anonymen handschriftlichen Wörterbuch (Ms Marsh 111) in der Bodleian Library in Oxford verwandt ist. Die Verbindung zwischen dem gedruckten Wörterbuch und Marsh 111 ermöglicht es uns, weitere Einträge im Dictionnaire Chinois & François mit fehlerhafter Romanisierung und Übersetzung zu identifizieren.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Issues concerning the sources and authorship
  • 3.The circulation and re-discovery of Marsh 111
  • 4.The textual and structural similarities of Marsh 111 with the Dictionnaire Chinois & François
    • 4.1The description and the compiling process of Marsh 111
    • 4.2Marsh 111 is a copy
    • 4.3The connection between Marsh 111 and the Dictionnaire Chinois & François
  • 5.New findings of the Dictionnaire by comparing with Marsh 111
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (29)
References
A. Primary sources
Anonymous. 17th century (?). Thesaurus rarissimus, in quo explicantur ultra 10000. Characteres Chinensium lingua Hispan. in fol. chart. Serica. Bodleian Library, Ms Marsh 111.
. 1640–1641. Vocabularium Hispanico-Sinense. Bodleian Library, Ms Marsh 696.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Díaz, Francisco. 1640–1641. Vocabulario de letra China com la explication castellana hecho con gran propriedad y abvndancia de palabras. Ms. Berol. Ms. Sin 13. Hisz., chin., XVII w. Jagiellońska Library of Kraków. Available at: 〈[URL]〉
Heurnius, Justus. 1628. Dictionarium Chinense, hoc est, Lingua Belgica juxta Alphabeti ordinem, & Latine & Mandarine quoque explicati Chinensium characteres, in folio. Three manuscripts: (1) British Library (Sloane 2746), (2) Bodleian Library (MS Marsh 678), and (3) Leiden University Library (Acad 224).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kircher, Athanasius. 1667. China Monumentis: quà sacris quà profanis, nec non variis naturæ & artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata. Amsterdam: Apud Joannem Janssonium à Waesberge & Elizeum Weyerstraet.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1670. La Chine d’Athanase Kirchere de la Compagnie de Jesus, illustrée de plusieurs monuments tant sacrés que profanes, et de quantité de recherchés de la nature & de l’art, a quoy on à adjousté de nouveau les questions curieuses que le Serenissime Grand Duc de Toscane a fait dépuis peu au P. Jean Grubere touchant ce grand Empire. Avec un Dictionnaire Chinois & François, lequel est tres-rare, & qui n’a pas encores paru au jour. Traduit par F. S. Dalquié. Amsterdam: Ches Jean Jansson à Waesberge, & les Héritiers d’Elizée Weyerstraet.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kircher, Athanasius (author), Zhāng, Xīpíng 張西平, Yáng, Huìlíng 楊慧玲 and Xiànmó, Mèng 孟憲謨 (translators). 1667 (2010). Zhōngguó túshuō中國圖說 [China Monumentis]. Zhengzhou: Elephant Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruggieri, Michele and Matteo Ricci. 2001 [before 1588]. Dicionário Português-Chinês:葡漢辭典 (Pú Hàn cídiǎn): Portuguese-Chinese Dictionary. ed. by John W. Witek. Lisbon, Macau & San Francisco: Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Instituto Português do Oriente & Ricci Institute for Chinese Western Cultural History.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
B. Secondary sources
Chabrié, Robert. 1933. Michel Boym Jésuite Polonais et la fin des Ming en Chine (1646–1663): contribution à l’histoire des missions d’Extrême-Orient. Paris: P. Bossuet.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couplet, Philippe. 1686. Catalogus patrum Societatis Jesu, qui post obitum S. Francisci Xaverii primo sæculo, sive ab anno 1581. usque ad 1681. in Imperio Sinarum Jesu-Christi fidem propagarunt. Vbi singulorum nomina, patria, ingressus, prædicatio, mors, sepultura, libri Sinice editi recensentur. Paris: ex Typographia R. J. B. de la Caille.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dijkstra, Trude. 2021. Printing and Publishing Chinese Religion and Philosophy in the Dutch Republic, 1595–1700. Leiden & Boston: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duyvendak, J. J. L. 1936. “Early Chinese Studies in Holland”. T’oung Pao 321: 51. 293–344. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Golius, Jacobus. 1696. Catalogus Insignium in omni facultate, linguisque, Arabica, Persica, Turcica, Chinensi &c. Librorum M.Ss. Quos Doctissimus Clarissimusque Vir D. Jacobus Golius, Dum Viveret: Mathesios & Arabicae Linguae in Acad. Lugd. Batav. Professor Ordinarius, Ex Variis Regionibus magno studio, Labore & sumptu, collegit. Quorum auctio habebitur in AEdibus Joannis Du Vivie, Bibliopolae. Ad diem XVI. Octobris St. Novo, hora nona. Lugduni Batavorum, Apud Joannem Du Vivie. Leiden: Johannes Du Vivié.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Golvers, Noël. 2011. “Michael Boym and Martino Martini: a contrastive portrait of two China missionaries and mapmakers”. Monumenta Serica 59:1. 259–271. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klöter, Henning. 2011. The Language of the Sangleys: A Chinese vernacular in missionary sources of the seventeenth century. (= Sinica Leidensia, 98). Leiden & Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “China from c. 1700”. In The Cambridge World History of Lexicography ed. by John Considine, 317–339. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Masini, Federico. 2003. “Notes on the First Chinese Dictionary Published in Europe (1670)”. Monumenta Serica 51:1. 283–308. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 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 Xiaxin Wu, 179–193. Sankt Augustin: Monumenta Serica Institute/ The Ricci Institute of Chinese-Western Cultural History at the University of San Francisco.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pelliot, Paul. 1934. “Michel Boym”. T’oung Pao (Second Series) 31: 1/2. 95–151. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raini, Emanuele. 2010. Sistemi di romanizzazione del cinese mandarino nei secoli XVI–XVIII. Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, Studi Asiatici, XXII ciclo, Facoltà di Studi Orientali, Sapienza – Università di Roma.
. 2017. “A Preliminary Analysis of the Romanization in the Vocabulario da letra China”. Chinese Missionary Linguistics ed. by Davor Antonucci & Pieter Ackerman. (= Leuven Chinese Studies, 34), 109–136. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute/ KU Leuven.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shen, Feifei. 2021. “Les dictionnaires bilingues français/latin↔ chinois du 18e siècle”. Dix-huitième siècle 53:1. 579–595. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Szcześniak, Boleslaw. 1947. “The Beginnings of Chinese Lexicography in Europe with Particular Reference to the Work of Michael Boym (1612–1659)”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 671: 31. 160–165. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Takata, Tokio 高田時雄. 2009. “SANGLEY yǔ yánjiū de yīzhǒng zīliào ──Bǐdé‧Qíruìnuò de ‘Hàn Xī cídiǎn’ SANGLEY 語研究的一種資料──彼得‧齊瑞諾的『漢西辭典』[A resource for the language of the Sangleys: Petrus Chirino’s Dictionarium Sino-Hispanicum]” ed. by Yìyuán Chén 陳益源. Mǐnnán wénhuà guójì xuéshù yántǎo huì lùnwénjí 2009 閩南文化國際學術研討會論文集 [Proceedings of 2009 International Conference on Min-nan Culture]. Tainan: Department of Chinese, National Cheng Kung University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Worcester, SJ Thomas, ed. 2017. “Dictionaries”. In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Jesuits, dictionary-entry, 230–231. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yáo, Xiǎopíng 姚小平. 2015. “‘Hàn Fǎ cídiǎn’ (1670) kǎoshì 《漢法詞典》(1670) 考釋 [An Explanation of the Chinese-French Dictionary (1670)]”. Yǔyán kēxué 語言科學 [Linguistic Sciences] 14:3. 294–305.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwartjes, Otto. 2014. “El Vocabulario de letra china de Francisco Díaz (ca. 1643) y la lexicografía hispano-asiática”. Boletín Hispánico Helvético: Historia, teoría(s), prácticas culturales 231. 75–76.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue