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In:Basilio Brollo’s Dictionarium sinico-latinum (Chinese-Latin dictionary): A critical edition of the manuscript Rinuccini 22 (Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana)
Gabriele Tola
[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 134] 2026
► pp. 128–142

Chapter 8
Brollo’s Dictionarium sinico-latinum and later lexicographical production

The connection with Dominicans and late Qing dictionaries

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Abstract
This chapter analyses the connection between the Dictionarium sinico-latinum by the Franciscan missionary Basilio Brollo (Ye Zunxiao 葉尊孝 or Ye Zongxian 葉宗賢, Gemona, 1648–Xi’an, 1704), Dominican, and late Qing lexicographical production. More specifically, the chapter first analyses three under-researched dictionaries deriving at different degrees of proximity from Brollo’s work: two are stored in Biblioteca Casanatense (Brollo 1713 and Brollo 1741), one in the Royal Asiatic Society Library (Raper 1807). Through an analysis of textual and paratextual elements — including prefaces — of the structure, similarities, and differences with the Dictionarium sinico-latinum, a comparison of the listed sources, and a linguistic analysis of selected entries comparing two versions of the Dictionarium sinico-latinum (Brollo 1694 and Brollo s.a.) with the three vocabularies considered, this chapter better clarifies the connection between early lexicographical production in the Chinese language by Catholics, native sources in Chinese, and later late Qing dictionaries by secular authors, contributing to a better description of the stemma codicum of the Dictionarium sinico-latinum and of dictionaries composed within the frame of missionary linguistics.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The hidden connection
  • 3.Biblioteca Casanatense and Royal Asiatic Society Library: Contents and sources
  • 4.Comparison between selected entries
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
References (33)
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