Jean-Baptiste Du Halde

Jean -Baptiste You dump (* February 1, 1674 in Paris, † August 18, 1743 ) was a French Jesuit, geographer and sinologist who published in particular by the 1735 four -volume work Description de la Chine et de la chinoise Tartarie (Description China and Chinese Tartary ) was known.

Life and work

Jean -Baptiste You stockpile graduated from Jesuit College Collège Louis -le- Grand, was born on September 8, 1692 Member of the Society of Jesus and put on 2 February 1708 four vows. He was all his life in Paris worked, made no trips, never was in China and could not speak Chinese. He was temporarily secretary of Michel Le Tellier, the confessor of King Louis XIV, and from 1729 confessor of Louis I de Bourbon, duc d' Orléans, the son of the Regent of France, Philippe II de Bourbon, duc d' Orléans.

He led from 1711 to his death begun by Charles Le Gobien SJ Publications of the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses continued, a regular edition edifying and informative letters of Jesuit missionaries mainly from China, shown in which various aspects of this hitherto in Europe largely unknown land were.

He finally made the information obtained from the letters of the missionaries together in the four-volume work Description de la Chine et de la chinoise Tartarie to a comprehensive description of this country, supplemented by numerous maps, the Bourguignon d' Anville, Jean -Baptiste on the basis of maps the Jesuit missionaries had made to Jean -Baptiste Régis, especially the first comprehensive and reliable map of China at all. The description of China was published in a slightly modified reprint, 1736, in The Hague, and shortly thereafter, translated into English (London, 1739 ) into German ( Rostock, 1747-1756 ) and in Russian (St. Petersburg, 1774-1777 ). The Description de la Chine long remained the standard work used throughout Europe China. The map of Tibet, which were based on the observations of two instruierter by the Jesuits Lamas was the only reasonably reliable map of this inaccessible country until the end of the 19th century.

From Voltaire following description is you handed Haldes:

« Jésuite; quoiqu'il ne soit point sorti de Paris, et qu'il n'Ait point su le chinois, a donné sur les Memoires de ses confreres la plus ample et la meilleure description de l' empire de la Chine qu'on ait dans le monde. "

" Jesuit; even though he never left Paris and no Chinese could have been on the basis of the notifications of his monks the most extensive and best description of the Empire of China, there are in the world. "

Works

  • Lettres et édifiantes curieuses, écrites des missions étrangčres par quelques missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jésus, volumes IX à XXVI. Paris, 1709-1743
  • Description de la Chine et de la chinoise Tartarie. P. G. Lemercier, Imprimeur - libraire, Paris 1735
  • Description Geographical location, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l' empire de la Chine et de la chinoise Tartarie, Enrichie of cartes générales et particulieres de ces pays de la carte générale et des cartes particulieres you Thibet, & de la Corée; & Ornée d' un grand nombre de figures en & de vignettes Gravees tailledouce. New edition, Henri Scheuerle, The Hague 1736
  • Detailed Description of the Chinese Empire and the great Tartary. First Part. Translated from the French übersetzet with diligence, along with many engravings. With a preface Sr. Reverend Mr. Abbot Mosheim, is the latest Chinese church history will Declare. Rostock, verlegts Johann Christian Koppe, in 1747. Reprint facsimile, Potsdam 2012, ISBN 978-3-88372-047-0
1735 in literature 1736 in literature Integrated Authority File
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