Jerónimo Lobo
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2014) |
Jerónimo Lobo | |
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Born | 1595 |
Died | 29 January 1678 | (aged 82–83)
Occupation(s) | Jesuit missionary, writer |
Parent(s) | Francisco Lobo da Gama Maria Brandão de Vasconcelos |
Jerónimo Lobo (1595
Life
He was born in
With the intention of proceeding to Ethiopia, whose .
His other activities included recovering the remains of
The abdication of Emperor Susenyos (1632) deprived the Catholics of their protector; his successor,
Once Lobo reached
He accordingly returned to India in 1640, and was elected rector, and afterwards provincial, of the Jesuits at Goa. After some years he returned to his native city, where he died.
Writings
A number of Lobo's writings have survived. He entered into a correspondence with Henry Oldenburg of the Royal Society concerning the source of the Nile, which likely led to the publication in London of a little book entitled A Short Relation of the River Nile, of its source and current; of its overflowing the campagnia of Ægypt, till it runs into the Mediterranean and of other curiosities: written by an eye-witnesse, who lived many years in the chief kingdoms of the Abyssine Empire. Translated by Sir Peter Wyche.
Gabriel Pereira reported in 1903 that he had found three short works in manuscript by Lobo in the library of the Duke of Palmela, and in 1966 Fr. Manuel Gonçalves da Costa discovered in the Ajuda library at Lisbon another short work of Lobo, Breve Notícia e Relação de Algumas Cousas Certas não vulgares, e dignas de se saberem, escritas e [sic] instância de Curiosos, which repeated the topics of A Short Relation.
His best known work is his memoirs of the years 1622-1640, which cover his voyage to India, his experiences in Ethiopia, and his journey back to Portugal; his Itinerário, however, was not published during his lifetime. Baltasar Teles made large use of Lobo's writing in his História geral da Ethiópia a Alta (Coimbra, 1660), often erroneously attributed to Lobo, but incorporated much from Manuel de Almeida's manuscript work. Lobo's own narrative was translated from a copy owned by the Count of Ericeira by the Abbé Joachim le Grand into French in 1728, under the title of Voyage historique d'Abissinie. An English abridgement of Le Grand's edition by Dr. Samuel Johnson was published in 1735 (reprinted 1789).
Fr. da Costa discovered another manuscript of Lobo's work in the Biblioteca Pública at Braga in 1947. This was not the same manuscript that le Grand translated; both were copies, with variations, of the original autograph left at the Casa de São Roque at the time of Lobo's death. The whole of this manuscript was translated by Donald M. Lockhart, and published with an introduction and notes by C.F. Beckingham by the Hakluyt Society in 1984.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lobo, Jeronimo". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 838. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the