Gaspar da Cruz

Free Gaspar da Cruz (* 1520 in Évora, † February 5, 1570 in Setúbal) was a Portuguese Dominicans. He worked as a missionary in Asia and was the author of the first printed European book on China.

Life

After he joined the Dominican Order, he went in 1548 as a missionary to Asia. There he founded the Dominican monasteries, as in Goa and Malacca. He is considered the first Christian missionary in Cambodia, and worked on Hormuz, and China. Since Cruz came probably in 1564 returned to Portugal, where he probably lived in the Alentejo and his book has become known wrote. He dedicated himself in 1569 to combat the plague, which he succumbed to it in 1570 itself.

His book

Importance was his book Tractado em que se Cotam muito por ESTESO as cousas as China, CO suas particularidades, e assi do reyno dormuz. In today's Portuguese reads: Tratado em que se CONTAM muito por extenso as coisas da China com suas particularidades e assim no reino de Ormuz ( German: treatise, which in great detail telling the things about China, with its peculiarities and also that of the Kingdom in Hormuz ), and is now usually shortened as the Tratado coisas da titled China (Portuguese ), or A Treatise of China (English ).

It was moved in Évora in 1569 (other sources 1570) by André de Burgos. The work is considered the first printed European book on China and the first serious European release to China since Marco Polo's travel accounts in the 13th century. It is also quoted outside of scientific contexts, and occasionally reprinted.