Beyond Agricola: The Multiple Origins of European Knowledge in Adam Schall von Bell’s Chinese Mining and Metallurgy Handbook Kunyu Gezhi (1640)

Abstract

In 2015, a previously unknown manuscript was discovered in the Nanjing Library. It contained a Chinese mining and metallurgy handbook, and was identified as a copy of the Kunyu gezhi 坤輿格致, known as the lost Chinese translation of Georgius Agricola’s (1494–1555) De re metallica (1556) by Jesuit Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666). A closer look at the text, however, reveals that, besides parts of Agricola’s book, content by at least four other European authors was included: Vannoccio Biringuccio (1480–1539), Modestinus Fachs (?–before 1595), Lazarus Ercker (1528/30– 1594), and José de Acosta (1539/40–1599/1600). This study demonstrates how their books became available in China, why they were selected as sources for the Kunyu gezhi, and how they were eventually used and incorporated. From this, it becomes apparent that Schall and his collaborators spared no effort to conduct this ambitious knowledge transfer project, and to present European technology at its best to the emperor. Received: August 21, 2020. Revised: October 29, 2020. This paper has been copyedited by John Moffett. * This research is part of “Translating Western Science, Technology and Medicine to Late Ming China: Convergences and Divergences in the Light of the Kunyu gezhi 坤輿格致 (Investigations of the Earth’s Interior; 1640) and the Taixi shuifa 泰西水法 (Hydromethods of the Great West; 1612),” a project supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2018 to 2021. The project is carried out at the Department of Chinese Studies at Tübingen University, Germany. I would like to thank the project leader Hans Ulrich Vogel, as well as project members Cao Jin 曹 晋 and Sabine Kink, for their critical and helpful comments. My further gratitude is also owed to Zhao Daying 赵大莹 from the National Library of China, and to Noël Golvers from KU Leuven for their support with some important details as well as to John Moffett for his diligent proofreading and to the anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions. 1 Research interests: Processes of communication, transfer and exchange between China, Europe, and the Islamic world in the middle and early modern periods. Among other topics, Alexander Jost has published on the establishment of hydrometallurgy in Song China, diplomatic relations between Ming China and Rasulid Yemen, and the practice of Hajj pilgrimage by Chinese Muslims. Email: alexander.jost@sbg.ac.at. Beyond Agricola: The Multiple Origins of European Knowledge in Adam Schall von... 59