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De Gulden Passer. Jaargang 74 (1996)

De Gulden Passer. Jaargang 74

(1996)– [tijdschrift] Gulden Passer, De–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtelijk beschermd

Vorige Volgende

The XVIIth-century Jesuit mission in China and its ‘Antwerp connections’
I. The Moretus family (1660-1700)1
Noël Golvers

General context of the topic

Since the 2nd half of the XVIth century and the first establishment of regular commercial and missionary contacts with the Empire of the Middle (China), a steadily growing stream of information of varying character reached Europe. A substantial part of this information originated from European Jesuits and was transmitted by them. Indeed, since Franciscus Xaverius (o1506 - † 1552) had shown the way to China, and especially since the last decades of the same century, small groups of Jesuits, starting from Macao, had progressively dispersed through mainland China, and eventually, in 1601, arrived in Peking (Matteo Ricci). These Jesuits were not only preachers of the Faith, but also sharp observers of the Chinese context they were working in, with an unmistakable interest in Chinese history, language, geography, traditions, science etc., albeit in a missiological perspective, looking out for possible leads for their mission. As was prescribed in their rules (Instructiones/Constitutiones),2 they reported in detail and on a large scale on their work, but made also many observations on the Chinese context, doing so in the forms and in the language of westerners with a classical culture of high standard. All this information accumulated in letters and in monograph studies, an overview of which can be found in the several volumes of Asia in the Making of Europe.3 Apart from some exceptional cases, these manuscripts were

normally transmitted to Europe via the overseas route, that means, for obvious reasons (the padroado and the Portuguese monopoly on the connections between Europe and South China), until the middle of the XVIIth century the Carreira da India, i.e. the route from Lisbon to Goa and Macao, and back.4 Due to the general decline of the Portuguese maritime empire, the crumbling of the padroado and the rise of new economic powers in Europe such as the Dutch republic, from about the middle of the XVIIth century, at least one important and attractive alternative for the carreira came into being with the appearance of the strong V.O.C. (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) fleet, the more so as these ships had a technological advantage over the Portuguese: the connection with Europe became shorter and quicker. The V.O.C. ships - sailing between Batavia and Amsterdam (Enkhuizen etc.) instead of Macao and Lisbon - were the emanation of a ‘heterodox’ nation, a factor which was, in the context of counter-reformation Europe, certainly an obstacle for the Catholic Jesuits in China to appeal to this new opportunity. From many indications it becomes evident, however, that in the exceptional context of the Far East many forms of practical tolerance were mutually produced, so that even the Jesuits in Macao - the place where all letters and mss. from China, destined for Europe, converged - were disposed to use, at least occasionally, this via Batavica for their communications to Europe. It is in this Batavian connection that Antwerp and the Moretus family has played a part. This role was first noted by H. Bosmans, S.J., in his edition of the Maldonado correspondence;5 later, C. Wessels returned to this point, integrating this mediation in the whole communication system between the Far East and Western Europe.6 In this contribution, I will considerably

amplify the number of documents and testimonia concerning these contacts, borrowing them a.o. from the Moretus collections themselves, and put them in the context in which they have to be viewed.

The epistolary contacts between the China Jesuits and the Moretus family: the testimonia

The main evidence still available for the involvement of this family in the contacts between China and the Low Countries (Europe) is a small corpus of letters sent by some China Jesuits to Moretus, which still survive in Antwerp or in other collections. For the convenience of the reader, I present a list of these items, where possible with updated references:

1. 1669, 26 Oct. F. de Rougemont MPM, 200, nr. 1
2. 1670, 25 Jan. G.F. de Marini MPM, 200, nr. 2
3. 1670, 6 Febr. J. de Haynin MPM, 200, nr. 3
4. 1670, 20 Oct. G.F. de Marini Rome, ARSI, JS 162, 302r.-v.-
(contemporary copy); a German translation of the 1st part was published in 1728 in the so-called Neue Welt-Bott (I, p. 46).7
5. 1670, 8 Dec. G.F. de Marini German translation in Der Neue Welt-Bott, I, pp. 46-47.
6. 1671, 7 Sept. F. de Rougemont MPM, 200, nr. 4.
7. 1671, 11 Sept. F. de Rougemont MPM, 200, nr. 5.
8. 1672, 1 Oct. G.F. de Marini MPM, 200; nr. 6.
9. 1672, 25 Oct. G.F. de Marini MPM, 200; nr. 8.
10. 1672, 30 Oct. J. Tissanier MPM, 200, nr. 7.
11. 1675, 19 Nov. J.-B. Maldonado MPM, 200, nr. 9 (2 identical autograph copies)
12. 1679, 4 Dec. G.F. de Marini MPM, 200, nr. 10.

13. 1680, 6 Nov. J.-B. Maldonado (a) Arch. jés. P.B.M. (Fonds Bosmans, VII-80, boîte 29, 2a); a copy with slight variants (inter alia the interesting postscript is lacking) is still preserved in Heverlee - Leuven (= 13b).
14. 1683, 6 Jan. A. Thomas Heverlee - Leuven
15. 1683, 30 Oct. A. Thomas Arch. de la Prov. de la Belgique Nord de la SJ (according to H. Bosmans - H. Josson)
16. 1684, 14 Jan. A. Thomas Heverlee-Leuven
17. 1684, 16 Febr. A. Thomas ibd.
18. 1684, 25 Febr. A. Thomas ibd.
19. 1684, 15 Dec. A. Thomas ibd.
20. 1685, 2 Jan. Bernardino della Chiesa ibd.
21. 1685, 20 Jan. A. Thomas Arch. de la Prov. de Belgique-Nord de la SJ (according to H. Bosmans - H. Josson)
22. 1685, 4 Nov. J.-B. Maldonado Arch. jés. P.B.M. (cf. sub 13a)
23. 1688, 1 Dec. J.-B. Maldonado (ibd.)
24. 1690, 25 Sept. J.-B. Maldonado (ibd.)
25. 1690, 15 Nov. J.-B. Maldonado (ibd.)

A first group of these letters is still preserved in the Museum Plantin Moretus (MPM), Antwerp as part of the original patrimonium; they are wrapped in a paper folder (105 × 230 mm.), provided, in a XVIIth century handwriting, with the title: Epistolae Chinenses (Ms. 200; 10 items). All are autographs, except nr. 6 (our nr. 8) which is a copie du temps. Other letters from China to Moretus - autographs as well - found their way into the private

collection of the Antwerp Jesuit College of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw (Our Lady), under still unclear conditions;8 here they were kept in a small folder until last year (1995), when they were transferred to the new Archief van de Noord-Belgische Provincie in Heverlee.9 A third group of letters (our nrs. 13a; 22; 23; 24; 25) was found at the beginning of this century by H. Bosmans in the ‘Archives de la Province Belge de la S.J.’ which, according to the same source, were offered by the last proprietor of the Officina Plantiniana, Edward Moretus (1804-1876), to Father Vincent Baesten, S.J. (1824-1898);10 afterwards Father A. Lallemand, S.J. (1847-1917) handed them over to H. Bosmans, who finally published them in 1910.11 After the division of the modern Jesuit Archives in 1935 into 2 parts (called the Archives of the ‘Noord-Belgische Provincie’ and those of the ‘Province Belge Méridionale’ respectively), and the manifold removals of both collections which followed this separation, the 5 original Maldonado papers reached the Archives de la Province Belge méridionale de la Compagnie de Jésus (Arch. jés. P.B.M.) in Brussels, where I saw them on 8 November 1995.12 Eventually, a final pair of letters (nrs. 15 and 21) was located by (H. Bosmans and) H. Josson, during their preparation of the correspondence of A. Thomas, in the then Archives of the North Belgian (= Flemish) Province; they were, however, never

published, as the planned edition failed, and - in spite of a thorough investigation - I was thus far not able to find them again. All in all, it follows from this overview that only 7 items - the 2 Marini letters in the Neue Welt-Bott and the Maldonado items - have been published. For obvious reasons the text of the 18 other items cannot be added to this contribution, and I refer the reader for this to a separate publication (in preparation).

This corpus starts in 1669, covering a period in which a considerable group of ‘Belgian’ missionaries stayed in China. First, some members of the ‘Flandro-Belgica’, viz. Philippe Couplet (o1623 Mechelen - † 1693), Franciscus de Rougemont (o1624 Maastricht - † 1676) and Ferdinand Verbiest (o1623 Pittem - † 1688). Already in 1663, Ph. Couplet had begun to occasionally entrust some letters for Europe to the V.O.C. ships, addressed - through a personal friend in Batavia, and following the V.O.C. route - to a mediator in Amsterdam, viz. the printer Blaeu, who always had good contacts with the Catholics in both the Northern and Southern Low Countries, and even printed for them!13 Moreover, it was the same Ph. Couplet and F. de Rougemont, - the first names of our list - who had personal contact with the Moretus family, and with the milieu of the Antwerp Jesuits anyway (cf. infra). Most of the other correspondents of this ‘corpus’, viz. Jean de Haynin (o1633 Ath - † 1682), Jean-Baptiste Maldonado (o1634 Mons - † 1699) and Antoine Thomas (o1644 Namur - † 1709) originated from the Gallo-Belgica. Giovanni Filippo de Marini (o1608 - † 1682), though of Italian extraction, had once visited Antwerp, where he had met Moretus (cf. infra). The only exceptions, thus, are the French Jesuit J. Tissanier (o1618 - † 1688) and the Italian Friar Bernardino della Chiesa (o1644 - † 1721). This strong ‘Belgian’ connection not only explains why this ‘post-route’ from China to Europe, via Batavia, Amsterdam and Antwerp (Moretus), originated precisely in the 60s, but also why it ended

early in the 90s: at that moment, the aforementioned coryphees of the Flemish Jesuit community in China had deceased (the last of them was Ph. Couplet, who would die in 1694 in via). The only signs of a short revival of this correspondence early in the XVIIIth century are found in two letters outside this corpus, written by Petrus van Hamme, S.J. (o1651 Gent - † 1727), the last surviving missionary of the Flandro-Belgica in China in this era, and once, in 1684, indicated as Couplet's journey mate. These very letters, however, - from 1702 and 1703 respectively -14 prove precisely that the contact with the Moretus family at that moment was already broken, and there was no personal connection between Van Hamme and the printer family;15 no wonder, then, that no letters are found between the two partners in the otherwise abundant correspondence of Van Hamme. So the epistolary contacts between the Moretus family and the China mission stopped - ironically enough - just before the commercial interests of Joannes Jacobus Moretus (o1690 - † 1757) in the tea import from China started.16 This story, however, is told elsewhere in this book.

Their character of ‘cover letters’

All in all, this corpus consists of 25 letters, dispersed over the 22 years between 1669 and 1690. From the text, either the opening or the closing formula, it appears that all of them were in fact merely ‘cover letters’, each accompanying a packet of letters

(‘litteras’; ‘fasciculum litterarum’) destined for various addressees; to these enclosed letters I will return further. On some external aspects of this correspondence we are informed by the cover letters themselves. First, as far as the frequency of these shipments is concerned, it appears that in some periods they were rather numerous, e.g. in the 80s: on 30 October 1683, A. Thomas sent a packet of letters to Moretus (nr. 15); three months later, on 14 January 1684, a new shipment followed (nr. 17), on 16 February a new fascicle (nr. 16), and on 25 February another one for Paris (nr. 18). The speed with which these dispatches arrived at their destination in Antwerp can be inferred from a listing, preserved in MPM (M 30 [before: 323], p. 20; cf. infra), where a fascicule which had left Macao on 15 December 1684 apparently arrived in the Moretus house on 5 September 1685, i.e. after less than 9 months; this is confirmed for 1675 by a remark of Jean de Haynin, reporting that it took only seven to eight months for a letter from Belgium to arrive in South China (‘Potest tamen contingere ut viâ Batavicâ eas [litteras] possim accipere post 7 aut 8 menses’).17 It thus took less than a year for a letter to reach Rome (cf. nr. 11: ‘imo in ultimis Asiae finibus intra eiusdem fere anni curriculum Romam pervenisse’); this was in any event a considerable progress compared with the average speed of the ships on the carreira da India and a major advantage for the administration of the mission. The difference becomes quite apparent in our nr. 6, which was apparently sent via Portugal; it was only received in Antwerp in February 1675, i.e. after 3 1/2 years (cf. the ms. note on the back cover side: ‘Desen brief is over / Portugael alhier bestelt ontrent de maent februarii 1675’). In 2 cases, the original address formula is preserved, once in Dutch (Rougemont in nr. 1), once in French (Tissanier, in nr. 10). The former runs as follows: ‘Eersaemen discreeten voorsienighen Heer / Mr. Balthasar Moretus / tot / Antwerpen / In de plantinianische druckerye....’, whereas the latter is quite common (‘A Monsieur / Monsieur [sic] Balthasar Moret. A Anvers. En son absence a quelque autre que ce soit de sa maison’).

In spite of their character of ‘cover letters’, they contain interesting and relatively fresh information from China, by which Balthasar Moretus II (o1615 - † 1674) and III (o1646 - † 1696) were among the better informed in Europe on matters Chinese. The news from China consists of actual facts concerning the mission or the political situation in relation to the mission's position. The central figures in the news of these years are F. Verbiest - until his death in 1688 the ‘pillar’ of the contemporary Christian mission in China, as he is regularly called in writings from this milieu -18 and the K'ang-hsi Emperor (o1654 - † 1722), the guarantor for a climate of tolerance towards the church, thanks to and because of his good relations with the European Jesuits. Reference is made inter alia to the rehabilitation in 1669 of A. Schall von Bell, S.J., Verbiest's predecessor who died in 1666 in his exile in Peking; the Portuguese embassy to Peking of Manoel de Saldanha (1670); to the release of the missionaries in 1671 from their Cantonese exile (1665-1671) and their return to their former mission station; Verbiest's successes with the Emperor and his famous tour through Western Tartaria in 1683; the embassy of the Vice-Roy of Goa to Japan in the same year; the conquest of Taiwan / Formosa by the Manchus; the arrival in 1684 of F. Pallu, missionary of the Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP) and the Apostolic Vicars, both instruments of the influence of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide and firm opponents of the Jesuit influence in China; the activities of the same in 1684 in Fukien and the troubles they caused to the Christian mission; the Emperor's epitaph on behalf of the recently deceased Father Christian Herdtrich, S.J. in 1684; the arrival in 1685 of a Siamese embassy in Peking and Verbiest's support of it, etc. It would take us too far to sum up all the events referred to, and to explain all these facts, of which most are pivotal moments in the history of the Jesuit mission, and indeed taken from the immediate actuality, or even prospects of the near future. Attention is also paid to the addressees, where to de-

liver the enclosed letters, for which occasionally alternatives are indicated. All in all, some writers are more prolific in reporting news than others; F. de Rougemont, on the other hand, refers his correspondent for further news to a more extensive letter, sent by the ‘traditional’ way, viz. over Goa and Lisbon: ‘Por la via, dat is over Goa ende Lissabon schrijve breedt-lopigher’ (nr. 7). The real ‘hot’ news, of course, was to be found in the enclosed letters, where it was developed in manifold detail and in all its aspects, in the well-known reporting style of Jesuit writings. On several occasions, the authors of the cover letters refer Moretus for more details to the father Rector of the Jesuit College of Antwerp, or the Praepositus, c.q. Provincialis, both residing in the Antwerp Professed House; apparently Moretus was supposed to have free access to these Jesuit authorities, and through them to the ‘inside information’ from China destined for the latter. This illustrates on the one hand how the missionaries made the most of their time, respecting the rules of courtesy towards their benefactor with a small private letter with some concise information, and on the other hand how good the relations of the Moretus family with the Jesuits were.

For obvious reasons no sample has survived of an answer to these cover letters in the reverse direction, i.e. from the Moretus house to the Jesuits in China. However, such letters should have existed anyway, as can be inferred from some sparse references in this corpus, as in the letter of G.F. de Marini from Macao, dated 4 December 1679 (nr. 12): ‘In posterioribus litteris, quas ad me dedit Pater D(ominationis) V(estr)ae...’, the same item even contains indications as to the addresses in Batavia for these answers to Macao, viz. Theodore Sax or Le Clier: ‘Expecto à D(ominatione) V(estrâ) responsum et p(er) navim, quae Amsterodamo sol/vit in hanc Bataviam; poterit dirigere l(itte)ras D(omi)no Theodoro Sax vel D(omi)no Le Clier, qui ad nos per Lusitanos, qui eo navigant, [ad nos] litteras mittet Macaum’.19 Another Batavian addressee is proposed by B. della Chiesa in his letter of 1685, viz. one French Monsieur d'Angier,

not further known (‘Ibi cognosco Dominum d'Angier Gallum qui, si D.V. satisfacit, mihi erit pergratus et, ut spero, fidelis’).

The reasons for this correspondence with the Moretus family

This brings us to the motives for the election of the Moretus family as mediators. This choice was certainly inspired by the practical advantages connected with the use of this renowned and always respected name as addressees. On the other hand, motives of a more personal character may have been decisive, such as the direct acquaintance of some of the China Jesuits with Balthasar Moretus II and III, and the apparent interest of the Moretus family in the (Antwerp) Jesuit community and the Jesuit missionaries in China.

First, the practical arguments. Only in the two aforementioned Van Hamme letters of 27 November 1702 and 14 January 1703 is the Moretus name explicitly connected to the question of the security of the dispatch. In case the letters were sent viâ Anglicanâ, the address of the printer would be a warrant for a correct delivery, while when openly addressed to a Jesuit it was in danger of being destroyed in London; therefore Van Hamme, when in China, looked for a layman address in Antwerp, and the only one known to him was precisely Moretus, who was known to be on particularly good terms with the Jesuits (see the quotation in n. 15). It is not clear, however, if and to what extent this motive has been relevant in the last decades of the XVIIth century, with the ships of the V.O.C. (the ‘Via Batavica’), and outside the English (and Anglican) context.

Second, there is the personal acquaintance of some Jesuits in China with the Jesuit community in Antwerp and with the Moretus family. This is the case with Father Ph. Couplet, who in 1645 - 1646 had taught in the Jesuit College of Antwerp,20 and with Fr. de Rougemont who did his humanities in Antwerp for 4 and a

half years (ca. 1635-1639),21 and who in December 1654 started from here his journey to China. Such direct relations with the milieu of the Antwerp Jesuits even existed in the case of the Italian father G.F. de Marini who had stayed temporarily in Antwerp, in all probability in 1665.22 In view of the close contacts between the Moretus family and the Antwerp Jesuits, it is very probable that a stay in the Jesuit College or the Professed House would have implied some personal meetings with the Moretus family. This acquaintance can even be proved for Fr. de Rougemont, who in his letter of 26.X.1669 (nr. 1) reminds his addressee, Balthasar Moretus II, of his farewell in December 1654: ‘Dit is omtrent het sestienste iaer dat ick tot Antwerpen myn afscheydt van UE ghenomen hebbe etc.’, as well as for G.F. de Marini who, again in nr. 12, reflects on the benefits he got from B. Moretus II: ‘Non immemor beneficiorum quae in me contulit pro sua humanitate dum Antwerpiam tenui’. In nr. 4, he even speaks in terms of a personal ‘friendship’: ‘Veteris n(ost)rae amicitiae tesseram mitto huius Orientis res eventusque novos’

On the other hand, there was the apparent and actual interest, both on the part of the Antwerp Jesuits and some prominent families, among them the Moretus, in the Jesuit mission of China. In the circles of the Antwerp Jesuits, as in other Jesuit houses, this interest was kept alive by reading Jesuit correspondence from China, either published or unpublished, in original or in a copy. First, there were the printed Litterae Annuae from the Chinese (and Japanese) province, of which some were translated into Latin by the students of the Jesuit College in Antwerp, under the supervision of H. Hugo, S.J. (o1558 - † 1629)23 and of A. Crucius,

S.J. (o1578 - † 1629),24 and which were published in the same place, either by Verdussen or by Moretus.25 Also manuscript copies of letters, originally not addressed to Antwerp, circulated, and were occasionally transcribed in separate ‘letter books’, either for edifying private lecture or reading aloud; one such specimen is preserved, entitled Indica ab Anno 1609 ex Privatorum Litteris Accepta, containing letters from both the West and East Indian missions up to 1652.26

In the second half of the XVIIth century, a leading figure such as Daniel Papebrochius, S.J. (o1628 - † 1714) was a former fellow-student (‘condiscipulus’) and friend of Couplet, and in December 1654, when the latter, in the company of F. de Rougemont, prepared himself to leave the country for a lifelong mission to China, Papebrochius, then in Leuven, had composed a 204-verse propempticon, existing only in manuscript, comparing the Jesuit's journey to China to Hercules descending into Hades to defeat the forces of Darkness.27 Prominent members of the Antwerp Jesuit community such as Johannes Bollandus (o1596 - † 1665) and Hendricus de Prince (o1632 - † 1671) had once or repeatedly postulated for the China mission themselves28. Also in this period, copies of letters from famous Jesuit missionaries in China

were made on behalf of the Professed House,29 but also direct contacts existed, as both the cover letters to the Moretus house and others undeniably prove; for this purpose, even Couplet, de Rougemont and Maldonado occasionally used other viae than the one passing through the Moretus house.30 Some of these letters were published, viz. by Father Cornelius Hazart, S.J. (o1617 - † 1690), socius from the Antwerp Jesuit community who composed a voluminous Kerckelycke Historie van de Gheheele Wereldt (..) in 4 vols., of which the first was devoted, inter alia, to the Chinese, and the fourth to the ‘Tartarian’ church, i.e. China under the Manchu occupation;31 we hear from direct and fresh information from China, always through the mediation of the ‘Belgian’ Jesuits.32 Moreover, from the Antwerp Jesuit community even presents were sent to China, to the benefit of the Jesuit mission there, such as the much sought-after vitra, offerred - again - by Father H. de Prince, witness a paragraph in item 2 (‘...quae ad me mittebat P. Le Prince 5 vitra; non vidi’).33 They occasionally also saw the many times repeated and urgent demand for (recent) books. So, at least two books are preserved until now in the Pei-t'ang Library of Peking - the historic heir of Verbiest's former Peking residence and its library - which according to the dedication were offered by the Antwerp Jesuits:34 it concerns a copy of G. Blaeu, Institutio Astronomica de Usu Globorum et Sphaerarum Caelestium ac Terrestrium, Amsterdam 1652 (with the inscription: ‘Collegii Soc.tis Jesu

Antwerpiae B.M.’), and one of A. Kircher, Mundus Subterraneus, Amsterdam 1665 (inscribed ‘Collegii Soc.tis Jesu Ant[werpiae] 1667 M.B.’). The latter was, according to the envoy (‘Dono dedit P[ater] de Prince’), offered by the same Father H. de Prince, apparently just before he was appointed professor in the Jesuit special school of mathematics in Leuven.35 These and probably other book shipments were a kind of support by the Antwerp Jesuits to the scientific aspect of the mission of their fellow fathers in China; that it was precisely Father H. de Prince who was particularly sensible to these needs may be seen as a consequence of his original, but refused offer to go on the same mission (cf. n. 28; on other manifestations of the attraction on members of the family de Prince, see infra). Eventually, a true correspondance suivie between the China mission and the Antwerp Jesuit residence had developped at the end of the XVIIth and in the first decades of the XVIIIth century, addressed mainly by Father P. van Hamme to the Bollandist Fathers Daniel Papebrochius and Conrad Janning (o1650 - † 1723), but at that time the direct relations to the Moretus family apparently had come to an end.36

 

Certainly, this interest in the needs of the China mission or even enthusiasm for it was revived when on some rare occasions Jesuits, temporarily returning from China, visited Antwerp in person. Such was the case when G.F. de Marini visited Antwerp, apparently early in 1665 (cf. supra). That these contacts were to some degree substantial is proved by the nominatim greetings in some of his letters to particular fathers living in the local Jesuit community.37 The big moment, however, was the arrival (in fact the return) of Ph. Couplet in Antwerp in February 1684. The enthusiastic re-

ception is described in eloquent terms in the Litterae Annuae Collegii Antwerpiensis Soctis Jesu ai 1684;38 it appears that Couplet and his Chinese companion were welcomed by a ‘sacra synaxis’, while in the ‘triclinium’ (of the College) the Philosophy students proposed both a poem and a drama, the latter inspired by the Chinese persecution, viz. of 1665-1669, widely known through Europe from Jesuit letters (‘Dein ad triclinium invitatus eleganti carmine a Philosophis studiosis exceptus est; non multo post solemni dramate ipsi applausum est; in theatro a poesios auditoribus argumentum scenicum erat Persecutio Chinica....’). During this stay,39 Couplet met old friends and benefactors (-resses), and found on his way a great devotion for the cause of the Christian mission in China. When he left for his diplomatic mission through Europe (France; Italy; England; Spain; Portugal), the Antwerp Jesuit residence (with Oosterlynck as the general financial responsible) became his base where - as is proven by several references in his letters from 1686 / 1687 to Daniël Papebrochius - he left part of his luggage, including manuscripts and money.40 Still in 1688, Antoine de Beauvo(i)llier, S.J. (o1657 - † 1708), the famous China traveller, visited the Antwerp Fathers in plain clothes,41 in all probability on his way from France to Poland and Moscovia, to join Father Philippe Avril, S.J., in a search for an overland route to China.42

Apart from the Jesuits proper, some prominent Antwerp families also supported the interests of the same mission, in line with their piety and devotion to the cause of the Church and that of the

Jesuit Society (in Antwerp), in the best of the counter-reformation traditions. Among these benefactresses were the sisters Elisabet, Maria Johanna and Clara Johanna de Prince, of whom Father Hendricus de Prince (cf. supra) was probably a relative, and who were also related to the Moretus family since the marriage of Elisabeth de Prince and Christoffel Moretus in 1613. They were sellers and exporters of the much renowned Antwerp religious prints - also to China - and Ph. Couplet, when he returned to Europe (cf. infra) explicitly praised them in his Histoire d'une Dame Chrétienne de la Chine for their liberality towards the China mission.43 Another anecdote which clearly illustrates the atmosphere of piety and strong devotion to the China mission in the bosom of some Antwerp families may be revealed here. During the same stay of Couplet, Maria Anna Bernardina Stauthals, 13 years old, and her sister Isabella Theresia Agnes Rosalia, 8 years old, vigorously put themselves forward as candidates to go to China;44 twenty-seven years later, on 15 October 1711, Petrus van Hamme, S.J. the young novice who was designated as Couplet's company during the latter's European sojourn, piously remembers this fact, and, being then a missionary in China himself, informs after the further vicissitudes of these sisters with his correspondent, apparently an Antwerp Jesuit.45

In this same atmosphere we find the Moretus family. The first clear manifestation of a formal involvement in the needs of this mission known to me appears in the person of Theodorus Moretus, S.J. (1602-1667),46 whose request for the China mission was

signed in Louvain, on 3 July 1626.47 Also Cornelius Moretus, S.J. (1614-1655), on 2 distinct occasions, viz. on 5 July 1640 and on 9 February 1646 formally asked to be sent to the Eastern Indies;48 neither the former nor the latter request was granted, and in September 1654 we find Cornelius promoted as theology professor to the Antwerp Jesuit college. Here he was involved in the case of Ignatius Hartoghvelt, S.J. (o1629), one of the sons of the Dutch Catholic printer Barend Hartoghvelt. The latter was firmly opposed to his son's plan to go to the China mission and had desperately asked his Flemish colleague Moretus to exert as much pressure as possible on him, so that he abandon his plans;49 Father Moretus and many other prominents of the city tried, in vain. The young Hartoghvelt left Antwerp on 20 December 1654, soon followed by Couplet and de Rougemont, for China, where he never would arrive, as he died in via in Siam in 1658. Less than twenty years later, the attraction and vocation to the China mission was again felt within the Moretus family. This is related in the aforementioned letter of G.F. de Marini of 4 Dec. 1679 to Balthasar III (nr. 12): ‘In posterioribus litteris, quas ad me dedit Pater D(ominationis) V(estr)ae, me certum reddidit de ingressu in Societatem germani fratris D(ominationis) V(estrae), cuius nomen ignoro; insuper addidit illum habere in votis missionem Sinarum’. As the father of his correspondent, viz. Balthasar II, had died on 29 March 1674, the letter to which G.F. de Marini refers and from which he has the information about this future China missionary in the Moretus fa-

mily must have written before that year, so that this information in 1679 is rather outdated. This Jesuit brother of Balthasar III was certainly Johannes (o1647), who entered the Jesuit Society in 1668, and who took his first vows on 14 December 1670.50 Anyway, it is very typical of the character of the XVIIth-century Jesuit mission in China, in which the demonstration of mathematical and scientific skill towards the Chinese upper class was a major instrument of the propagation of the faith, that in the same paragraph G.F. de Marini continues, advising the young candidate to apply himself especially to mathematics: ‘Operam interim navet egregiam Mathesi, ut sequenti anno se possit addere socium P. Philippo Couplet, qui est electus procurator Sinarum Romam’. This plan was not realised, either because the proposal of J. Moretus was not accepted by the general, as happened with so many Indipetae, especially in the Flemish-Belgian Province, or because of some firm opposition from Johannes' parents; here the death of his Father, Balthasar Moretus II, in 1674 could have been of some influence too. After a new initiative of Johannes for the missions in Chili (sic)51 was positively answered in 1683 by the Society's authorities, but was obstinately countered by his mother, the widow Anna Goos, who in the end succeeded in keeping her son at home, despite some strong insistence of the general,52 we hear again in 1686, through the correspondence of father Couplet, then in Paris, of some firm inclination of this father towards the China mission, without any success. Anyway, he is repeatedly greeted by Couplet as a true benefactor of the Mission,53 and the missionary even suggests some alternatives: on 8 May 1686, Couplet refers

to father Moretus' zeal for the Chinese missions, and sees some potential financial advantage from it, as the latter's mother would probably prefer to pay for books in return for keeping her son at home (‘Forte gratis P. Moretus illam [sc. Verbiest's letter to Alfonso VI, on which see infra] imprimet pro zelo suo erga Sinam, et siquidem optima mater eo carere vix queat, solvat illam, et redimat per librorum eleemosynas corpus ch[arissi]mi filii sui’). The same suggestion is repeated on 26 May, concerning the payment of some Antwerp prints (’imagines’) for the needs of the China mission: ‘Optarem, inquam, si quid residuum pecuniae penes P. Oosterlinck, nisi forte D(omina) Mater P(atris) Moreti, Sinicae Missionis alumni dignissimi, eas [sc. imagines] malit pro filio missioni offerre, nec obest quod imagines illae contineant in aversa facie litteras Europaeas.54

For the particular position of the Plantin - Moretus printing house within the contemporary Catholic world, the mutual interest between the Moretus family and the China Jesuits also included a professional aspect. The first manifestation of the Plantin productions on Chinese soil at all probability was the arrival of the Multilingual Bible edition, which was solemnly exhibited in Peking on 15 August 1604 with considerable ceremonial.55 Moreover, we have some clear evidence that Jesuits, preparing their lifelong mission in China, visited the Antwerp publishers, including the Moretus house. This happened when in 1616 Johann Schreck (Terrendus), S.J. and Nicolas Trigault, S.J. both crossed through western Europe (mainly Germany), looking for funds and receiving presents for the China mission;56 they passed through Antwerp between the end of November and the middle of December 1616, precisely to purchase books, as we learn from Ter-

rentius' correspondence.57 A survey of the aforementioned catalogue of the Pei-t'ang library in Peking shows that among the preserved books, labelled as belonging to the original Trigault nucleus of this library and therefore acquired in the years 1616-1617, nine items - concerning either biblical, historical or scientific topics - originate from the Officina Plantiniana;58 therefore these items were in all probability purchased during this visit to the Plantin bookshop. Later, Moretus editions arrived in Peking in unclear circumstances, either by subsequent purchases or sent there as a present. Anyway, thirty years later, in his famous poem De Druk-kunst (1645), devoted to Balthasar Moerentorf, i.e. Balthasar II Moretus, and glorifying this printing house, the famous Dutch poet Joost Van den Vondel refers, probably with some literary emphasis, to the ‘learned Moretus editions which are read by the Chinese in the Far East’; the explicit qualification ‘learned’ rules out that he is thinking here of the famous liturgical books of the Plantin printing house. The passage runs as follows:

 
Ik zing den Druk-zang, op Uw naam
 
zo wijd gezongen, als de Faam
 
Uw uitgebreiden lof trompet;
 
Daar 't licht, uit zijn welriekend bed,
 
bestraalt den kruid-oegst der Chinezen
 
die uw geleerde boeken lezen.59

Also when at the end of 1654, as a result of the propaganda journey of Martino Martini, S.J. (1614-1661) through the Low Countries,60 several Flemish Jesuits, among them Ph. Couplet, Fr. de Rougemont and Ignatius Hartoghvelt, departed for China, their luggage contained a considerable number of Plantiniana, as is shown by a short reference in a letter of F. de Rougemont of 23 December 1658 to J. Bollandus, written shortly after the former arrived in Macao; the author refers here to the large collection of books they carried with them (‘Multis libris venimus onusti’), and in a postscript he mentions P. Martinius, who ‘...will flood the Chinese market with...Plantin prints’ (‘...ut et D. Balthasari Moreto [salutet], cujus elegantibus typis Chinam replebit P. Martinius’).61 As we know that the Couplet - de Rougemont - Hartoghvelt company, when departing from Antwerp in December 1654, found (part of) the heavy luggage of M. Martini, waiting for them to be carried to China,62 it is attractive to combine these three testimonia, and to surmise that inter alia it was books purchased in Antwerp, including Plantiniana, which made this luggage so heavy. But books were not only carried to China, also orders were placed from there: as late as 1685, the Friar Bernardino della Chiesa, then in Canton (Quang cheu) explicitly calculates with this eventuality, and asks for a contact address in Batavia for the payment: ‘...et si aliquando a D.V. libri mihi opus essent, eidem possim numerare pecunias’ (nr. 20).

On the other hand, the contacts of the returning China missionaries with the Moretus family should also have been the occa-

sion for talks about the publication of the manuscripts of their fellow fathers from China, which they always carried with them, in order to diffuse the knowledge on China and the moral value of its culture, and to defend the cause of this mission. The Plantin house, to be sure, had published only a few titles on the China (and Japan) mission, viz. some Litterae Annuae translated in Antwerp, already mentioned before. Nevertheless, in the early months of 1654 M. Martini, on first arriving in Antwerp, succeeded in publishing his manuscript De Bello Tartarico in the Officina Plantiniana, which within the same year had a second edition!63 But there is more. According to a pericope in a letter by Olaus Wormius (o1588 - † 1654), the famous antiquarian from Copenhagen, dated 20.I.1654, it was Martini's explicit intention to publish his epoch-making China-atlas in Antwerp.64 This unexpected information is confirmed from Antwerp by D. Papebrochius who states, in his bio- and bibliography of his friend and teacher J. Bollandus, S.J.,65 that Martini arrived in Antwerp with his maps and the plan of having his Atlas published here; only when the Antwerpienses typographi - among them certainly the Plantin house - showed their fear of the uncommon size of the plates, was Martini directed to the Blaeu publishing house by J. Bollandus.66 This somewhat frustrating experience probably explains why, when in 1671-1673 Pr. Intorcetta visited Europe with several manuscripts of the precious Jesuit translation of the Confucian Classics

(the I Ching), his Flemish friends Couplet and de Rougemont even recommended the Amsterdam printer Jansonius, as if the Plantin press was no longer a serious candidate.67 Nevertheless, in 1675 Father J.-B. Maldonado, then in Siam, heard some rumours circulating in the Far Eastern mission, that some reports on that mission were published in Antwerp, but this information apparently was wrong.68 Eventually, when in 1681 Ph. Couplet went to Europe, again the expectation was expressed that the great number of manuscripts he carried with him should be published by the Plantinian press, at least this is what we find in item nr. 13a (6 Nov. 1680), where J.-B. Maldonado reports from Macao about the imminent arrival of Couplet: ‘Spero brevi appulsurum in Flandriam P. Philippum Couplet Mechliniensem, qui multa secum deferet Plantinianis typis imprimenda’. In fact, nothing of the sort occurred, and all the manuscripts in Couplet's luggage, including those produced by Flemish Jesuits such as F. Verbiest, were published abroad. This applies even to such a small item as the letter of F. Verbiest, S.J. to Afonso VI, King of Portugal, dated 15 August 1678, concerning the role of the Portuguese nation in the defense of the China mission.69 Although Couplet in his letter from Paris, dated 8 May 1686 expresses the hope that this item could be printed gratis by the Plantin house, as a substitute for the aborted missionary enterprise of J. Moretus to China (cf. supra), we learn from another letter of 22 June 1686 that it was Michael Cnobbaert who finally published it.70 All this may be significant and

typical for the contemporary evolution of the Plantinian Officina which indeed since the death of Balthasar II Moretus (1674) published nothing else but liturgical books.71

The enclosed letters: the testimonia

Once a packet of letters had arrived in Antwerp, the cover letters which were addressed to Moretus were kept in the private archives of the family, and the enclosed letters were transmitted to their real addressees, mainly through the Rector of the Antwerp Jesuit College or one of his colleagues who probably did the further dispatching through Europe. In principle, therefore, nothing of them is preserved in the Moretus archives, and it is nearly impossible to know who precisely were the Jesuit expeditors, except for Couplet and Rougemont (nr. 3) and Ferdinand Verbiest (nr. 20). As to the addressees of these letters, on the other hand, we are better informed. On the basis of references in the accompanying cover letters, we can draw up the following list: the Jesuits in Antwerp, either the Provincial of the Flandro-Belgian province, Father G. Henschenius, S.J., the Rector of the Antwerp College or the Pater Praepositus of the Professed House; outside Antwerp are mentioned the Assistant of Germania, viz. Father Carolus de Noyelle, S.J. (1615-1686); the Father Praepositus of the Professed House in Lisbon; some Jesuits in Paris, esp. the Confessor of the King in 1672, Father J. Ferrier, S.J. (1614-1674), Father Jean Brisacier, S.J. (1603-1668) and Father Jean Adam, S.J. (1605-1684); eventually the General in Rome.

Moreover, one shipping list is preserved, sent from Macao on 15 December 1684 and arrived in Antwerp on 5 September 1685 (Litterae quae fuerunt destinatae Balthasari Moreto, / Macao datae 15 Decembris 1684 et acceptae 5 Septembris / 1685).72 The list contains: (1o) 5 letters for Ch. de Noyelles, the then General in Rome (1682-1686); (2o) 3 letters for father Francisco Almada S.J. (1620-1683), the Assistant of Portugal in Rome; (3o) 1 letter for Father Emanuel Fernandez, S.J. (1614-1693) in Lisbon, the Private

Confessor of the Portuguese King Pedro II in 1667-1693; (4o) 1 letter for one unidentifiable Father J. Pomereau, S.J., residing in Lisbon as well; (5o) 1 letter for one Father Pasqual Baylon, O.F.M. in the Ara Caeli convent in Rome, on whom I have found no further information; (6o) 1 letter to Father François (d'Aix) de la Chaize, S.J. (1624-1709) in Paris, the private Confessor of the French King Louis XIV since 1674; (7o) 1 letter to Father Antoine Verjus, S.J. (1632-1706), Procureur Général des Missions de Levant; (8o) 1 letter for Father Georg(es) Le Lermite, S.J. ‘a Tornay’, viz. Georges L'Hermite (? -1707); (9o) 1 letter for Father Alexandre Bonmon(t), S.J. ‘a Douuay’, viz. the famous A. Bonmont (1632-1718) - also the addressee of M 30, pp. 9-15 (cf. infra) - who was an important mediator between Antoine Thomas, S.J. in China and the academic circles in Paris, as was already demonstrated by H. Bosmans.73

Rome, Lisbon, Paris - the gravity centers of the contemporary Jesuit world in Europe - return as the destinations of many letters in this listing, and the addressees were important ecclesiastical dignitaries, mostly with direct access to the highest secular and clerical authorities, viz. the decision makers on whom also the China mission depended; this is more in particular the case of Father de la Chaise who, from his position of trust with the King, may have been one of the main inspirators of the latter's interest in the Chinese mission, ending with the sending of the 5 famous Mathématiciens du Roy. In the same orbit worked Father Antoine Verjus, S.J., who in his function of procurator of the Far Eastern Missions participated in this decision process.74 All this proves that the letters which passed through Antwerp were not simply of a private nature, but at least occasionally of high political importance.

Although the letters were thus in principle not kept, we find in the same Moretus archives five texts, all of them contemporary copies, which prove that in some particular case a letter was copied

before it was transmitted to its destination. Four of them are bound in one vol. (M 30 [formerly 323]; 24 pp.; 354 × 232 mm.), and were copied by the same hand, probably on the same occasion. It contains: (a) a copy of the famous letter written by F. Verbiest on 4 October 1683 to Ph. Couplet in Rome, containing a long Latin description of his famous journey through Tartaria Occidentalis in the company of the Emperor (p. 1-8);75 (b) a letter of A. Thomas, SJ. to the Praepositus of the Antwerp Professed House (undated, but according to internal criteria it should have been written at the end of 1683; pp. 8-9); (c) a Demonstratio Iuris Imperatoris Tartari ad possidendum Imperium Sinicum contra Navarretem, dated in Macao, 20 April 1684, probably composed by A. Thomas as well (p. 9-15); (d) a rather long extract from a letter, sent by F. Verbiest (Peking) to A. Thomas in Macao concerning geodetic operations in Tartaria, partly during the same expedition as mentioned sub (a), with unique samples of Verbiest's geometrical demonstrations and related drawings, an absolute unicum in his bibliography (p. 17-20). Moreover, there is the autograph diary of the maritime journey Lisbon - Goa, composed by Ignatius Hartoghvelt, S.J. and entitled Diarium Navigationis Indicae P. Ignatij Hartoghvelt, P. Philippi Couplet et P. Franc. Rougemont...qui anno 1656, 28 Martij navim Lisbonae ascenderunt, omnes Chinipoli, and closed on 9 April 1657 (Ms. 221 [formerly 277]; 11 pages; 200 × 157 mm.).76 As for these 5 pieces any relation to the Moretus family is lacking, and on the contrary in four cases another addressee is mentioned (Couplet in a, the Praepositus in b and Bonmont in c and d), it appears that these texts were copied before the original was transmitted; the reasons for the making of the copy in these cases are not clear.

Some presents from China to the Moretus house

From the cover letters it appears how much the Jesuits in China appreciated the service (‘beneficium’) offered by the ‘humanitas’ of the Moretus house to the cause of the China mission, and this inspired them to some favour in return. The most striking example is found in the case of de Rougemont, who in 1671 - on two ocasions (on 7 and 11 September) - sent a copy of a Chinese book printed in the residence of the Jesuits in Canton during their exile there. This precious specimen (together with other copies, to be handed over to the Father Provincial or to Father G. Henschen(ius) in the Antwerp residence) is referred to in nr. 6 as follows: ‘nu tot een kleyne / bewysinghe van danckbaerheyt presentere UE / desen boeck als eyghen present aan soo werdighen / Erfghenaem van Plantinus, tsaemen biddende de / resterende aen onsen Eerw. P. Provincial oft / P. Godfridus Henschenius te doen overleveren: / ende om nu niet te spreken van den inhoudt, die w(elcke) / niet en kan laeten seer vermaeckelijck te sijn voor / soo veel begrijpt de herstellinghe van het Christen / ghelove in China; soo laet UE weten dat desen boeck / in ons huys, ende voor onse ooghen, in houte tafels / ghesneden ende ghedruckt is, welcke de sinoischen / ghedaen hebben met een soo groote lichticheijdt ende behendigheijdt, dat ik seer soude wenschen UE eenen / dach moocht hier wesen om soo curieuse saecke te / aenschouwen’. Thus, according to this description, this book dealt with the ‘restoration of the Christian Law in China’ and, according to a second reference (in nr. 7) with the ‘innocence of the Christians’ (‘de wondere ontschuldinghe van de Christelycke wet in dit Ryck’). Therefore, this book should be a copy of the famous Innocentia Victrix, sive Sententia Comitiorum Imperij Sinici pro Innocentia Christianae Religionis (...), published, according to the title page, ‘in Quam cheu metropoli provinciae Quam tum [i.e. Canton] in regno Sinarum Anno Salutis Humanae MDCLXXI’.77 It is a bilingual edition, with Chinese texts and Latin commentaries, printed in the Chinese way, viz. by the

xylographie technique.78 It deals with the various phases of the process of restoration of the Christian Faith after it was suppressed, and the missionaries exiled, during the Oboï Regency (1665-1669), and it is unique for the Chinese official documents it both quotes and comments. As its author is normally indicated either Antonio de Gouvea, S.J., the then Vice-provincial of the Chinese Vice-Province, though the formula of the text only says: ‘Iussu R.P. Antonij de Gouvea Soc.is Iesu (...) exposita’, or Andrea Lubelli (Lobelli), S.J. For the latter attribution - first found in C. Sommervogel (s.v. Lubelli) - there is no basis as far as I can see. On the contrary, we now have at our disposal two serious indications for the authorship of F. de Rougemont,79 so that it was his own book which he sent in 1671 to Moretus and the Antwerp Jesuits, though he humbly omits to claim this publication as his own work. Anyway, there too we see the Jesuits in China concerned with sending up to date information (as the book was sent in the same year it was printed),80 but probably its greatest value was that of a typographical curiosum, which must have pleased the printer Moretus considerably! Although Chinese curiosities became rather common from the XVIth century, also in the Southern Netherlands,81 specimens of Chinese texts were at that moment

far more rare.82 We do not know if these copies ever arrived at their destination in the Moretus house and the Jesuit residence; they are lost, and even were not inscribed in the catalogue of the Moretus private library, which was compiled ca. 1675. The (Latin) text was published in the Acta Sanctorum, XIII, Propylaeum Maij,83 but this happened apparently on the basis of a copy, brought by Ph. Couplet during his visit to Antwerp in 1684.

An item actually preserved in the Plantin Moretus library is the Titulus honorificus & laudes, quas Imperator Sinarum Xun Chi dictus anno Imperii sui decimo dedit P. Joanno Adamo Schall S.J. ob navatam in restauranda Astronomia operam (R 7,5; Chin. print; fo; 40 pages). These bilingual (Chinese - Manchu) eulogies for Verbiest's predecessor Johann Adam Schall von Bell, S.J. (1592-1666) date from 1653. Several copies are scattered through European collections, among them the University Library of Gent (Hi 2960) and the Royal Library in Brussels (Ms. 19920).84 About the origin of the copy in the Plantin Moretus collection nothing is known with certainty, but by way of analogy with the former case it could have been a present to the editor in Antwerp as a token of gratitude and respect; there might probably be some connection with the sending of the Chinese Emperor's epitaph for A. Schall by G.F. de Marini on 8.XII.1670 (cf. supra, nr. 5)

A last dispatch of this type was a manuscript (‘Relatio’; ‘Historiola’), entitled ‘de naufragorum mirabili successu’ (v.s.), and written by a young father in Macao (‘Missa ab amico Macaensi ad manus meas pervenit quaedam relatio, quam munusculi loco ad

D(ominationem) V(est)ram mitto....’).85 Almost inevitably, this sending was accompanied by a proposition to have it corrected in the Moretus printing house, and to publish it. It is still unknown which text is meant here, but apparently Moretus once more did not accept the proposed project of publication.

Apart from these bibliophilic curiosa, natural history curiosities were sent one decade later from Macao by A. Thomas. The listing of these curiosa is preserved, thanks to a copy before in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-College of Antwerp, now in Heverlee-Leuven (‘Liste de ce que j'envoie a Monsr Balthasar Moret, de Macao, 15 Févr. 1683’).86 It contains:

(a)‘Trois ou quatre escrevisses ou cancer de l'isle de Hainaum en la Chine, lesquels se tirant de l'eau se convertissent en pierres’ (see infra on the pierre de Caranguejo);
(b)Trois pierres de cobra....;
(c)Une pierre de bazar (sic) tres excellente de l'isle de Borneo, ou sont les veritables;
(d)Deux pierres cordiales, qui ne cedent pas a celle de Bazar (...);
(e)trois pains d'encre de la Chine;
(f)une petite vase de corne excellent de licorne; cette (sic) un contrepoison (...);
(g)un peu de porc d'espine, broie dans du vin, contre le mal de colique de ventre.

From this listing, and from an appended sheet of paper, entitled Vertus de la pierre de Caranguejo de l'isle de Hainaum, it emerges clearly that these curiosities were chosen for their medical powers. Indeed, already since the first presence of the Flemish Jesuits in (South) China, they had a vivid interest in this aspect of their new environment, and as early as 23.XII.1658, Rougemont signalled several Oriental medicinal plants to Father J. Bollandus in Antwerp, such as the moluca, which was particularly adapted to cure acute pain of the heels, which this Father apparently suffered

from.87 For the identification of the plants offered by Thomas to Moretus, we can rely, inter alia, on the published pharmacopoea of the Jesuit College in Macao88 and of the specialised dictionary of R. Dalgado;89 here we find the original Portuguese denominations for several of the listed items, viz. the pedra or olhos de caranguejo (= a); the famous pedra de cobra or lapis serpentinus (=b); the pedra de bazar or bezoar (=c); the pedra cordial (-eal) (=d); the pedra de porco espinho, alias pedra de Malaca (=g). All of them had proven antidotal qualities, as the ‘vase de corne excellent de licorne’ (= f) which I have thus far been unable to identify.

 

All in all, this small corpus of letters may have shown an unknown aspect of the Moretus relations. Both the chronology of this small corpus and the names of the expeditors reveal that this correspondence was the emanation of some personal connections between the China-missionaries and the milieu of the Antwerp Jesuits, with whom the Moretus family was in close relation. Therefore, this correspondence was in the first place a much appreciated friendly turn, disappearing with the same missionaries, and not the expression of a particular intellectual or other interest in China itself. A short investigation through the catalogues of the private library of the Moretus family shows that most of the current XVIIth-century literature on China was absent. Nor did the Moretus involvement in the China epos of the Jesuits have much influence on the business policy of the house, and from the middle of the 50s some interesting proposals for publications on China were denied, which afterwards proved to be ‘epochmaking’.

 

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