Francisco Varo's grammar of the mandarin language, 1703 : an English translation of 'Arte de la lengua Mandarina' / [Edited by] W. South Coblin, Joseph A. Levi ; with an introduction by Sandra Breitenbach.
Includes bibliographical references (p. xlv-liii) and index.

Reproduction of Spanish original printed in Canton (Guangzhou 廣州) in 1703 with English translation on facing pages; English text has Chinese characters added to romanized text.
Includes reproduction and translation of Confessionarium of Basilio de Glemona.
Chinese character index arranged by modern pinyin with Varo's transcription and original character.
Note: De Glemona's name unauthorized, but OCLC records follow: Basilio da Gemona, 1648-1704. Brevis methodvs confessionis institvendae.

FRANCISCO VARO'S GRAMMAR OF THE MANDARIN LANGUAGE (1703): AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF 'ARTE DE LA LENGUA MANDARINA'; Editorial page; Title page; Copyright page; PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; Table of contents; EDITOR'S FOREWORD; 1. Background to the text; 2. Biographical data; 3. Text history and format of the Arte de la Lengua Mandarina; 4. Grammatical framework and transcriptional conventions in the text; 5. Structure and conventions of the translation; REFERENCES; INTRODUCTION: THE BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, AND GRAMMATICAL CONTEXT OF FRANCISCO VARO'S ARTE DE LA LENGUA MANDARINA (CANTON, 1703).

1. Introductory remarks; 2. Francisco Varo's Arte de la lengua Mandarina (Canton, 1703); 3. Biographical notes on Francisco Varo; 4. Varo's writings; 5. Grammatical studies initiated by the Dominican missionaries; 6. Greek and Latin linguistic traditions found in Varo; 7. The notion of ars grammaticae in the 17th and 18th centuries in connection with Varo's Arte de la lengua Mandarína; 8. Nebrija's influence on Varo's grammar; 9. Missionary grammars as models for Varo's grammar; 10. The influence of Varo'sArte on subsequent grammatical studies; 11. Concluding remarks; REFERENCES.

Abbreviations used in the Introduction. FRONTISPIECE; PROLOGUE; The First Chapter: A Few Monitions; The First Monition; The Second Monition; The Third Monition; The Fourth Monition; The Fifth Monition; The Second Chapter: On the Tones of this Language; Paragraph 1 : On the Simple Tones; The Second Paragraph: On the Guttural Tones; The Third Paragraph: On the Tones with Dot; The Fourth Paragraph: On the Guttural Tones with Dot; The Fifth Paragraph: On Some Other Ways of Pronouncing Certain Words; The Third Chapter: On the Declension of the Noun and the Pronoun; Declension of the Noun.

Declension of the Basic Pronouns; Declension of the Pronominal Derivatives; The Second Paragraph: Explanation of the Cases; Paragraph 3. On the Plural; Chapter 4: On the Substantive, Adjectival, Comparative, and Superlative Nominais; The First Paragraph: On the Substantives; The Second Paragraph: On the Adjectives; The Third Paragraph: On the Comparatives; Chapter V: On the Abstract Verbal Nouns, Diminutives, Frequentatives, Occupations, and Genders; The First Paragraph: On Verbals and Abstracts; The Second Paragraph: On the Diminutives; The Third Paragraph: On the Frequentatives.

The Fourth Paragraph: On the Names of Occupations; The Fifth Paragraph: On the Genders; Chapter VI: On The Pronoun; The First Paragraph: On the Basic and Derivative Pronouns; The Second paragraph. On the Demonstratives; The Third Paragraph: On the Relatives; The Fourth Paragraph: On the Reciprocals; Chapter VII: On the Interjection, Conjunction, Negation, Interrogative, and Conditional; The First Paragraph: On the Interjection and Conjunction; The Second Paragraph: On Negation; The Third Paragraph: On the Interrogative; The Fourth Paragraph: On the Conditional.

Chapter VIII: On the Verb and its Conjugations.

"Francisco Varo's Arte de la Lengua Mandarina, completed ca. 1680, is the earliest published grammar of any spoken form of Chinese and the fullest known description of the standard language of the seventeenth century. It establishes beyond doubt that this "Language of the Mandarins" was not Pekingese or Peking-based but had instead a Jiang-Huai or Nankingese-like phonology. It also provides important information about the nature and formation of pre-modern standard forms of Chinese and will lead to revisions of currently held views on Chinese koines and their relationship with regional speech forms and the received vernacular literature. Finally, it provides a wealth of information on stylistic speech levels, honorific usage, and social customs of the elite during the early Qing period. The book provides a full translation of the 1703 text of the Arte, an extensive introduction to the life and work of Varo, an index of Chinese characters inserted into the translation, and an index of linguistic terms and concepts. It should be of interest to a diverse readership of Chinese historical, comparative, and descriptive linguists, students of Qing history and literature, historiographers of linguistics, and specialists in early Western religious and cultural contact with China."

Local access dig.pdf. [Coblin-Varo's Grammar (1703).pdf]

Note on name: Basilio da Gemona (following LC); Basilio Brollo de Glemona (following Coblin). LC Authority record note: (The Franciscan Basilio Brollo was the author of the first comprehensive Chinese-Latin dictionary, which he composed in Nanking in 1694 and in 1699; At the beginning of the 19th century the French government decided to publish a dictionary and in 1808 entrusted this task to C.L. Joseph de Guignes (1759-1845), former consul of France in Catnon. Using the manuscript copy of Brollo's dictionary then in the Vatican Library, in 1813 de Guignes published the dictionary bearing his name, not that of Brollo, as the author)

摩西言行全傳 Mó se yên hing tsûen chuen. Life of Moses….memoir of the great legislator, in 7 books, is divided into twenty-seven sections, commencing with the genealogy and birth, and detailing the principal leading and collateral events in the life of Moses, the Decalogue, and various laws and institutions introduced by him. Short introductory preface. Cf. Wylie, Memorials, p. 58., no.18.

JapSin I, 138
Shengjiao guijie zhenzan 聖教規誡箴贊.
By Xu Guangqi 徐光啟.
One juan. Chinese bamboo paper in one volume. No date or place of publication.

The cover bears the title in ink and a Latin inscription: “Xim Kiao Guei Kiai chin çan | De S^ae Legis praeceptis Legibusque discursus | Auctore Colao Paulo.”

Adrian Dudink 杜鼎克: In memoriam, Erik Zürcher 許理和 (1928-2008) and a note (p. 16, by D.E.M. and undersigned) on Zürcher's calligraphy on the cover of this volume of SWCRJ. [Following notes by Adrian Dudink from EU-CHINA listserv].

Paul Rule 魯保祿: The Acta Pekinensia Project (taken from a paper for a conference in Taipei July 2005, published in English [and not in a Chinese translation, as the first footnote on p. 17 says] in Gu Weiying ed., Dongxi jiaoliu shi de xinju ..., Taibei, 2005, pp. 207-246; pp. 18-29 contain virtually the same text as pp. 227-245). pp. 17-29.

Gail King 歐凱妮: "The Ten Commandments of João Soeiro" (introduction to and [pp. 34-39] translation of an early 17th-century explanation of the Ten Commandments and found in Soeiro's Tianzhu shengjiao yueyan 天主聖教約言, the Chinese text of which is reproduced in vol. 1 of Chinese Christian Texts from the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus, Taibei, 2002, pp. 253-280; at the end of the present article, pp. 40-55, the pages 265-280 have been reproduced). pp. 30-55.

Reviews of new publications in the field:
Charbonnier, Jean-Pierre 沙百里, Christians in China: A.D. 600- 2000. Trans. M.N.L. Couve de Murville, 2007. Collani, Claudia von, Harald Holz & Konrad Wegmann, Uroffenbarung un Daoismus: Jesuitische Missionshermeneutik des Daoismus. Reihe Daodejing-Forschungen, 2008. Fatica, Michele, curator, Mattep Ripa e il Collegio dei Cinesi di Napoli (1682-1869), 2006. Standaert, Nicolas & Ad Dudink, Forgive us our sins: Confession in late Ming and early Qing China, 2006. Wang, Peter Chen-main 王成勉, ed., Contextualization of Christianity in China: an evaluation in modern perspective, 2007. Rita Widmaier, G.W. Leibniz: Die Briefwechsel mit den Jesuiten in China (1689-1714), Hamburg, 2006, by Daniel J. Cook (with Henry Rosemont compiler of Writings on China: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1994). pp. 56-80.

Undated handwritten copy of Vagnone’s Tianxue shijie jielüe 天學十誡解略 made in Japan during the period of proscription of Jesuit or Christian religious materials beginning in the early 17th century. This copy precisely follows the printed text produced in Fujian at the Qinyitang 欽一堂 press. The text is punctuated with Japanese reading marks and marginal notes in red ink.
The text itself is an offprint of the Ten Commandments in Vagnone's Jiaoyao jielüe 教要解略 (1615).
Reference see: Jami, Statecraft, p. 127; Standaert, Yang Tingyun, p. 233.

Local access dig.pdf & high-res [Vagnone-Tianxue Shijie jielue.pdf & folder]

JapSin I, 163
Tianzhu Shijie quanlun Shengji 天主十誡勸論聖蹟.
By Pan Guoguang 潘國光 (Francesco Brancati, 1607–1671, zi 用觀).
Ten juan. Chinese bamboo paper in one volume. No date or place of publication.

The title page and the preface by Xu Zuanzeng 許纘曾 are missing.

Cf. Courant 7220.
Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, p. 213.

The cover bears the title written in ink and a Latin inscription: “Chu kiao mim chim, id est | demonstratio religionis christianae a p. Franc. Varo | Dominicano. Continet 8 tomos.”

Chapter 1. God.
Chapter 2. Heaven and hell.
Chapter 3. The human soul and the fake doctrine of transmigration.
Chapter 4. The Decalogue in general and the first commandment.
Chapter 5. The second, third, and fourth commandment.
Chapter 6. The fifth, sixth, and seventh commandment.
Chapter 7. The eighth, ninth, and tenth commandment.
Chapter 8. The capital sins and the gravity of mortal sin.

Francisco Varo was born in Sevilla, Spain. He joined the Dominicans in 1643 and was sent to the Philippines in 1646. After his ordination in Mexico in 1648 he returned to Manila. He studied Chinese with the intention of going to China. In 1649 he arrived in Fujian where he studied Mandarin and the Fujian dialect. He was reputed to have obtained good knowledge of the Chinese language. In 1669 he was exiled to Guangdong and was not able to return to his mission until 1675. On 27 January 1687, four days before his death, he was elected titular bishop of Lidinense and vicar apostolic of Yunnan, Guangdong, and Guangxi. He had written a number of works, among others a grammar of Chinese.

Cf. Diccionario de Historia Eclesiástica de España (Madrid, 1970), IV:2715; Encyclopaedia Sinica (Shanghai, 1917), p. 587; SF 2:397, n.4.
Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 164-165.