UM prof makes ‘rediscovery’ of Jesuit journal

António Vasconcelos de Saldanha (left)

António Vasconcelos de Saldanha of the University of Macau’s (UM) Department of History has recently presented the rediscovered personal journal of the Jesuit priest and scientist, Sabatino de Ursis (1575-1620), one of the successors of Matteo Ricci in the Ming court of China.
The discovery, presented at a conference held in the Department of Sinology at Germany’s University of Tübingen, brings a new understanding of the history of how Western science was introduced to China, according to a statement from UM.
After further analysis of the important historical document, it will be presented at an international conference which is to be held in Beijing in November this year, UM also reported.
The newly rediscovered document shows how Sabatino de Ursis systematically discussed practical problems and a number of selected theoretical questions related to hydrology, water technology, and water management in his “Hydromethods of the Great West”, a treatise published in Beijing in 1612.
The journal used to belong to the Jesuit archives in Macau, however sunk into oblivion in the famous Jesuit collections in the royal library of Ajuda in Lisbon starting from the mid-18th century, where it was recently rediscovered and identified by Saldanha.
Professor Vasconcelos is a renowned specialist on the history of Macau and the history of the Jesuits in China. His research is currently being developed in association with another research project on the transfer of Western science, technology and medicine to the Ming dynasty China, which is being conducted by Professor Han Ulrich Vogel from the University of Tübingen. DB