Magalhaes work was called the “most comprehensive and perceptive description of China” in the second half of the 17th century by Donald Lach. It was begun in 1650 and not finished until 18 years later in 1668. Magalhaes died shortly afterwards in 1677 and his work remained in China unpublished until French Jesuit Philippe Couplet brought the Portuguese manuscript back to Rome in 1681-2 and presented it to the Cardinal d’Estrees, to whom the book is dedicated, and who commissioned the translation. This volume also contains a map of Peking described as the most accurate at the time. [The map is now in the TBC conference room.] Claude Bernou translated the Portuguese manuscript into French. He had to extensively rework and supplement the original which had been damaged in a fire. Among other things, Bernou gave the book its name, rearranged its contents into twenty-one chapters, wrote a preface containing a critical survey of literature on China and added important background information about the author.
The TBC volume is the first edition of Claude Bernou’s French translation which was reprinted twice, in 1689 and 1690
respectively. An English translation by John Ogilby was also published in London in 1688, with a reprint in 1689.

Author:
Magalhaes, Gabriel de, 1610-1677
The Jesuit missionary Gabriel de Magalhães was born at Pedrogao, in Coimbra, Portugal, of the same family as the famous navigator Ferdinand Magellan. He is thought to have inherited the same spirit of exploration that animated his famous forebear. Well-versed in mechanics, Magalhães arrived in China in 1640 and was posted to Hangzhou. In 1648 he went to Peking and lived for some time in the Forbidden City. He was also given responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the clocks and other western machinery in the courts of the Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors. Together with another Jesuit, Lodovico Buglio, he undertook the construction of the original St. Joseph’s Church in Beijing. He was later imprisoned in Beijing - during the increasingly anti-Christian atmosphere in the reign of the Kangxi emperor - and died there.