Johann Schreck Terrentius, SJ : his European network and the origins of the Jesuit library in Peking / Noël Golvers.
Included bibliographical references and index.

Chapter 1. The European 'Tour’
1.1 The prelude: Terrentius's academic Wanderjahre (c. 1590-1610): From Freiburg to Rome
1.2 Rome (1610-15)
1.3 From Rome to Lisbon: Terrentius's tour as Trigault's companion for China (1616-18)

Chapter 2. The People
2.1 Personal acquaintances: the 'active' network
2.2 Other names

Chapter 3. The Books and Instruments Collected
3.1 Terrentius's personal reading and the Fondo Faber
3.2 The 331 books bought (or received) at the Officina Plantiniana in Antwerp (December, 1616)
3.3 The 75 books, with the inscription: "Missionis Sinensis"
3.4 The instruments
3.5 The arrival in Macau and Peking

Chapter 4. The Multiple Competences of the Polymath Terrentius
4.1 Medicine: Terrentius's double profile
4.2 Mineralogy: minerals, mining and mineral sources
4.3 Botany
4.4 Mathematics
4.5 Terrentius astronomer
4.6 Calendar
4.7 Terrentius and magnetism
4.8 Cryptography
4.9 Linguistics
4.10 Encyclopedism

Chapter 5. A Final Assessment of Terrentius

Appendices
1. Bibliotheca Pontificia in the actual Beitang collection
2. Documents in the archives of the Officina Plantiniana
3. List of the 75 books in the Beitang catalogue with the inscription: "Missionis Sinensis"
4. Short title catalogue of Plantin-Moretus editions among the books Terrentius-Trigault acquired in Europe
5. Necrology of Terrentius (1630)
6. List of 36 letters from / the 35 letters to Terrentius

A thorough analysis of the sinuous peregrinatio academica of Johann Terrentius Schreck (1576-1630) between 1600-1618 through (South-, Central- and NW-) European universities, academies and courts (at Freiburg /Br.; Paris; Rome; Basel; Padua; Strasbourg, Prague, Kassel, etc.) and his rich correspondence displays a widespread network of contacts, covering a broad range of domains, from medicine to alchemy, pharmacy, botany, and through engineering to (pure and applied) mathematics, and calendar making. In all these domains of the contemporary ?Republic of Letters?, this former student of François Viète (Paris), Galileo (Padua) and ex-Lincean, adept of Copernicus and Paracelsus showed himself to be a passionate scholar with multi-faceted and versatile talents. After 1611, with this very rich experience he entered the Society of Jesus, and shortly afterward he was appointed as companion of Nicolas Trigault, who was touring through Europe (1615-1618) as procurator on behalf of the fledgling Jesuit Mission in China, seeking funds, men, books and scientific instruments. This second phase of intensive travelling through European centers of scholarship, patronage, and printing (including Rome; Venice; Basel; Frankfurt; Cologne, Antwerp, etc.) resulted in an enormous collection of books and instruments, which were dispatched to Lisbon from various points in 1617/1618. Shipped to China, these materials arrived in Macau in 1619, and in Peking in 1625, becoming the core of the Jesuit libraries, mainly in Peking, and the basis for the scholarly activities of the Jesuits over the following decades in the domains of mathematics, calendar making, medicine, etc.

Local access dig.pdf. [Golvers-Johann Schreck Terrentius.pdf]

"The translation of physics texts by western missionaries during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and its enlightenment of modern Chinese physics" / Li Yafeng

This article belongs to the Special Issue of

"Chinese Christianity: From Society to Culture," Religions 16

Abstract:

Christian culture is viewed as a translated cultural practice that has become intricately intertwined with the local culture over the course of historical development in China. Currently, many research findings focus on the translation of missionary religious texts during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. However, the translation of non-religious texts by Western missionaries from the same period also plays a pivotal role in the development of Chinese society and culture. In order to verify the above point of view, this paper focuses on the translation of physics texts by Western missionaries during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Examining the choice of physics texts translated by missionaries reveals the missionary motivations in evangelization. On the basis of analyzing the translation motivation, this study classifies the overall translation practice of Western missionaries in translating physical texts during that period, presenting the physical scientific knowledge brought to China at the time. Additionally, it explores how the translation of Western physical science enlightened the transformation and development of Chinese physics in modern times. Furthermore, the paper argues that the translations by Western missionaries played a crucial role in introducing new ideas and knowledge, contributing to the enlightenment of modern scientific knowledge in China, so as to underscore the value of the non-religious texts translated by Western missionaries to the society and culture in China.

Transformation and transmission : Chinese mechanical knowledge and the Jesuit intervention /  Zhang Baichun and Jürgen Renn (eds.).

Chiefly English with passages in Chinese.
"Joint Research Group of the MPIWG and its partner group at the IHNS of the CAS."
Includes bibliographical references.

The transformation of mechanical knowledge : an introduction / Peter Damerow, Jürgen Renn, and Matthias Schemmel -- The concept of force (li ...) in early China / Zou Dahai -- Mechanical knowledge in ancient Chinese cosmology / Tian Miao -- Mechanics in the 'Mohist canon' and its European counterpart / Jürgen Renn and Matthias Schemmel -- Mechanical knowledge in the 'Jiuzhang suanshu' / Tian Miao -- Wang Zheng and the transmission of Western mechanical knowledge to China / Zhang Baichun and Tian Miao -- Western sources of the 'Qiqi tushuo' / Peter Damerow and Urs Schoepflin -- The context of Jesuit mechanics / Rivka Feldhay -- Mechanical knoledge in the context of pre-modern Chinese salt industry / Hans Ulrich Vogel -- Influences of Western military technology and mechanics on Chinese ballistics / Yin Xiaodong -- The use of Galileo's theory of the strength of materials by the Jesuits in China / Chen Yue -- Western surveying in 17th century China and Japan / Fung Kam-Wing -- The knowledge about the lever in 18th century Chinese mathematics / Xiao Yunhong.

Local access dig.pdf. [Transformation and transmission.pdf]

Link to PDF