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In:Basilio Brollo’s Dictionarium sinico-latinum (Chinese-Latin dictionary): A critical edition of the manuscript Rinuccini 22e (Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana)
Gabriele Tola
[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 134] 2026
► pp. 96–108

Chapter 6
Female figures in the Dictionarium sinico‑latinum

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Abstract
This chapter explores the representation of female figures in the Dictionarium sinico-latinum, a Chinese-Latin dictionary compiled by the Italian Franciscan missionary Basilio Brollo (1648–1704). In addition to having a lexical significance, the Dictionarium offers a rich cultural repository in which mythological and legendary women — often underestimated in historiography — emerge as symbolic and important presences as described by Westerners. The study is structured in two main parts. The first part analyses 134 entries under the radical nü 女, revealing recurring nouns as well as adjectives. The second part presents six case studies of mythological or semi-historical female figures included in the dictionary, such as primordial creators, goddesses, and legendary ancestresses.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The analysis of the characters containing the radical nü 女
    • 2.1Recurring terms in the Latin definition part
    • 2.2Recurring terms in the Chinese gloss
  • 3.Case studies
    • 3.1Da 妲
    • 3.2E 娥
    • 3.3Huang 媓
    • 3.4Wa 媧
    • 3.5Yuan 嫄
    • 3.6Chang 嫦
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
References (13)
References
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