Angelo Zottoli (1826–1902) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

and

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and a

sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

Biography

Zottoli was born in Acerno in June 21, 1826 and, after joining the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

in 1843, went as a missionary to China in 1848. From 1853 he taught, and was headmaster, in St. Ignatius College for Chinese Christian students founded in 1849. He was known for his sinological works, and was an important leader in the Shanghai Catholic community of Zikawei, encouraging figures such as

Ma Xiangbo Ma Xiangbo (; April 7, 1840 – November 4, 1939) was a Chinese Society of Jesus, Jesuit Catholic priest, priest, scholar and educator in late-Qing dynasty, Qing and early-Republic of China (1912–49), Republican China. He was one of the foun ...

to carefully study the Chinese and Western classics.

Sinology

Zottoli produced a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textboo ...

Chinese Language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

''Cursus litterature Sinicae neo-missionariis accommodatus'' in five volumes '' in octavo''. He also produced Latin

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

s of some classic works of Chinese literature (

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

), a Chinese-Latin

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

, and many

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

texts in Chinese. In 1884 he was awarded the ''

Prix Stanislas Julien The Prix Stanislas Julien is a prize for a sinological work (usually) published in the previous year. It is named after the French sinologist, Stanislas Julien, and is awarded by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The Académie des ...

'' by the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epig ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

for his ''Cursus litteraturae Sinicae neo-missionariis accommodatus''.''Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres''
1884 28(4) p. 479

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zottoli, Angelo 1826 births 1902 deaths 19th-century Italian Jesuits Italian sinologists Italian lexicographers Italian Latinists Italian translators Italian male non-fiction writers Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Italian emigrants to China Jesuit missionaries in China 19th-century translators 19th-century Italian male writers Translators to Latin Translators from Chinese Missionary linguists 19th-century Latin-language writers Latin-language writers from Italy 19th-century lexicographers