Letter 1274

Jean de Fontaney to Hans Sloane – December 1, 1705


Item info

Date: December 1, 1705
Author: Jean de Fontaney
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 99-100



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Transcription

Fontaney recommends the three missionaries destined for China. They will serve Sloane by collecting curiosities for him. Fontaney asks Sloane to recommend them to the East India Company, with whom they will be travelling. Jean de Fontaney (1643-1710) was a Jesuit priest who led Louis XIV’s mission to China in 1685. He and his team were admitted to the Academie des Sciences and equipped with astronomical and geological instruments to collect information on their trip. Fontaney was also a distinguished teacher of mathematics and astronomy at the College de Louis le Grand. His work was published in the Journal des Scavans and Memoires de l’Academie des Sciences (David E. Mungello, Curious land: Jesuit accommodation and the origins of Sinology, University of Hawaii Press, 1989: pp. 329-330).




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