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Book Chapter

Representations of Tibet and Responses to Missionary Failure in Ippolito Desideri’s Italian Writings

  • Linda Zampol D'Ortia

This chapter considers the long shadow of failure on the 1716–1721 mission to Tibet by Italian Jesuit Ippolito Desideri (1684–1733). Analysing Desideri’s letters, his missionary manual, and his Notizie historiche del Thibet, it focuses on the historical actors’ perceptions of missionary failure, and on the expectations and biases these perceptions created, to expose otherwise neglected aspects of this intercultural encounter. It investigates the impact that these perceptions had on the tensions extant in the Jesuit Province of Goa, on Desideri’s description of the populations of the so-called “Three Tibets” (Baltistan, Ladakh and Tibet), and on the missionary policy he proposed for creating a Catholic Christendom that could spread globally.

  • Keywords:
  • Tibet; Ippolito Desideri; Eighteenth Century; Jesuits,
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Linda Zampol D'Ortia

Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-5640-6988

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  • Publication Year: 2023
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  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2023
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Representations of Tibet and Responses to Missionary Failure in Ippolito Desideri’s Italian Writings

Authors

Linda Zampol D'Ortia

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0242-8.04

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

East and West Entangled (17th-21st Centuries)

Editors

Rolando Minuti, Giovanni Tarantino

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

228

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0242-8

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0241-1

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0242-8

eISBN (epub)

979-12-215-0243-5

Series Title

Connessioni. Studies in Transcultural History

Series ISSN

2975-0393

Series E-ISSN

2975-0261

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