The Portal to Jesuit Studies

Following on the work of Fr. Joseph Dehergne, SJ, who compiled a directory of the Jesuits in China from 1552 to 1800, a new directory of Jesuits in China during the 19th and 20th centuries is now available from the Taipei Ricci Institute.

The Directory of the Jesuit in China from 1842 to 1955 is a collaboration among Fernando Mateos, Edmund Ryden, and Olivier Lardinois, all Jesuits of the Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus. It begins with the arrival of the three first Jesuit missionaries in China after the Jesuits’ restoration in the 19th century and closes with expulsion and imprisonment of Jesuits in the 20th century.

The book provides, according to its publisher, “the biographical notices of 1,570 Jesuits who worked in China between 1842 and 1955” as well as “an index of names in the forms of transliteration each used, another index according to international Pinyin and Chinese characters, Jesuit missions statistics, a chronology of the history of the mission and various mission areas, status in Church leadership (Bishops, Prefects Apostolic) and in academic and scientific work, a list of official and non-official Jesuit martyrs, a few maps and photos, and a selective bibliography.”

The book is available for purchase at the institute’s bookstore: http://store.erenlai.com/product.php?id_product=3248

On February 22, le Laboratoire de Mathématiques d’Avignon (LMA) et la Fédération de Recherche AGORANTIC d’Avignon Université hosts a day-long symposium on Athanasius Kircher, S.J. (1602-1680).

The symposium features presentations by mathematicians and historians, all considering the mathematics behind sundials. The event takes place in a building in which Kircher, noted German Jesuit scholar and polymath, taught in 1632. One of the rooms, the program announcement notes, “conserve dans ses murs les vestiges d’un exceptionnel cadran solaire à réflexion qu’il réalisa alors.”

A program appears below. More details are available at: http://univ-avignon.fr/colloque-athanase-kircher-entre-mathematiques-et-gnomonique–13438.kjsp

09:30 > 10:00 : Accueil

10:00 > 10:45 : Denis Savoie (Astronome, SYRTE – Observatoire de Paris et musée des Arts et Métiers), La gnomonique de Kircher : une diversité inégalée.

11:00 > 11:45 : Étienne Ghys (Mathématicien, ENS Lyon, secrétaire perpétuel de l’Académie des Sciences), Ombre et lumière.

13:45 > 14:15 : Raphaël Dallaporta présentera son installation vidéo : Mundo combinatorio / Monde combinatoire.

14:30 > 15:15 : Isabelle Pantin (Littérature et Language, ENS Ulm), Kircher, le livre et l’image scientifique.

15:30 > 16:15 : Jean-Michel Mathonière, Les compagnons tailleurs de pierre et la gnomonique.

The Jesuit Studies Cafés for Spring 2019 have been announced, featuring scholars from Africa, Europe, and North America. Topics range from Jesuits in Qina China to Robert Persons, SJ, and from a new online bibliography to questioning if the Jesuits were the last medieval order.

The Jesuit Studies Cafés are informal discussions hosted by the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. The events are free and open to the public, either to attend at the Institute’s library at Boston College or to join via videoconference. These cafés are unique opportunities to engage with some of the world’s preeminent scholars working on the history, spirituality, and educational heritage of the Society of Jesus.

If you would like to attend a café via videoconference, please register, and you will receive information on how to access the online meeting space 24 hours before the discussion.

The Spring 2019 schedule follows below. Please contact the Institute with any questions or if you wish to join or lead a café in the future (iajs@bc.edu).

February 21, 9:15 a.m. Eastern

Eugenio Menegon, Boston University and Collaborative Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

“The Jesuits as Courtiers in Qing China”

The Jesuits started their mission to China during the late Ming period, in the 1580s, but only received official imperial protection during the following Qing dynasty, starting in 1644. They were incorporated in the Imperial Astronomical Directorate as scientific functionaries, and informally served the emperor and the imperial court as painters, architects, horologists, cartographers, and ‘Western Studies’ experts until the late eighteenth century. Some key players within the Society of Jesus in Beijing also played a more “political” role as imperial favorites, or “courtiers” in early modern parlance. Part of a larger project on the Qing court, this presentation will cast light on the experiences of “missionary courtiers” in late imperial China.

March 21, 9:15 a.m. Eastern

Special Guests from North America and Europe

JesuitOnlineBibliography.Com

Either in person or online, please join special guests from Europe and North America to learn more about JesuitOnlineBibliography.com — a free, collaborative, multilingual, and fully searchable database of bibliographic records for Jesuit Studies scholarship produced in the 21st century. The Jesuit Online Bibliography is a collaborative effort between Jesuit research centers and archives as well as scholars and publishers. Join the café’s informal discussion to learn how the database works and how you can contribute to its growing and curated collection of scholarship.

April 11, 9:15 a.m. Eastern

Victor Houliston, University of the Witwatersrand

“Puzzles and posts: Reconstructing the Correspondence of Robert Persons, SJ”

Discussion will be led by Aislinn Muller, Institute Fellow.

Victor Houliston will speak about his work on the Robert Persons Correspondence Project. The project aims to produce an updated, multi-volume, multi-lingual edition of the surviving correspondence and unpublished papers of Robert Persons, SJ (1546-1610). The first volume of this project was published by the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in 2017.