Charles Le Gobien

Charles Le Gobien (1653 – 5 March 1708) was a French Jesuit writer, founder of the , a collection of reports from Jesuit missionaries in China. It is a major source of information for the history of Catholic missions and life in China in those times.

Life Le Gobien was born at Saint-Malo, Brittany. He entered the Society of Jesus on 25 November 1671. As professor of philosophy and especially while procurator of the Franco-Chinese mission, he sought in a series of papers to awaken interest in the work of Christianizing Eastern Asia. He died at Paris.

Works

In 1697 his appeared at Paris. Apropos of the Chinese Rites controversy, he published among other things (Paris, 1698); and in the year 1700: . Under the same date there appeared in Paris the . The second part, translated into Spanish by J. Delgado, is found in the latter's (Manila, 1892).

In 1702, Le Gobien published ; this was the beginning of the collection soon to be published under the title of . The first eight series were by Le Gobien, the latter ones by Du Halde, Patouillet, Geoffroy, and Maréchal. The collection was printed in thirty-six vols. duodecimo (Paris, 1703–76), and reissued in 1780-81 by Yves, de Querbeux, and Brotier in twenty-six vols. duodecimo, omitting the prefaces. New editions appeared in 1819, 1829–32, and 1838–43. One abridgment in four vols. octavo, was entitled , by L. Aimé Martin (1834–43). A partial English translation came out in London in 1714.

The publication incited the Austrian Jesuit Stöcklein to undertake his (about 1720), at first considered merely a translation, but soon an independent collection (five vols., folio in forty parts) substantially completing the (see , 1904–05).