Kilian Stumpf, The Acta Pekinensia or Historical Records of the Maillard de Tournon Legation, vol. 3
January 1708 – February 1709, eds. Paul Rule, Claudia von Collani (Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2024; Studies in the History of Christianity in East Asia, 10), viii + 644 pp.
Abstract
Among rich sources of the Jesuit Roman Archives concerning the Society’s missions in East Asia, there is a volume quoted as JaponicaSinica 138 containing the “Acta Pekinensia,” i.e. a 1467-pages-relation describing the visit in China of the pope Clement XI’s envoy, archbishop (later cardinal) Charles Thomas Maillard de Tournon (1668–1710) at the beginning of 18th century.1 The author of that manuscript was a German Jesuit Kilian Stumpf (1655–1720), a missionary in China from 1694, appointed at that occasion pontifical notary whose task was to document that legation.2 His Latin narration including texts in other languages covers the years 1705–1710, which were a crucial time of the long and complicated history of the Chinese rites and their final condemnation by Rome.
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