Luciano Petech; Ippolito Desideri; Tibet; Tibetan history; Missionary history
摘要
My essay deals with a short outline of the contents of the part dedicated to Ippolito Desideri, SJ (1664–1733) in I Missionari Italiani nel Tibet e nel Nepal, Il Nuovo Ramusio (Roma: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato, 1952–1956, 7 vols.), the opus magnum by Luciano Petech (1914–2010). The second volume of this work is composed of three parts in which Petech published a critical edition of the Relatio, id est Notizie Istoriche del Thibet e memorie de' viaggi e missione ivi fatta dal P.Ippolito Desideri della Compagnia di Gesù dal medesimo scritte e dedicate. Petech also published Letters and excerpts of the Defences, three Appendixes concerning a Missiological Manual, and the Report by the Portuguese Jesuit Manoel Freyre.
First I point out the characteristic qualities of the extraordinary work of the Jesuit, highlighted by Luciano Petech (vol. 2, part V, Introduction). First of all, he was a missionary but also an actual scholar, "the first European Tibetologist," as his writings communicate an extraordinary understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, important historical information of the period of his stay in Tibet, and a general overview of the Tibetan civilization at the time. Then I draw attention to the use of Desideri's writings by Petech in his historical publications such as China and Tibet in the early 18th century (Leiden: Brill, 1972).
