Teste Rerum
This abstract describes a fragmentary, multilingual historical document held in the Vatican Library Archives (Archival Reference 31, pp. 13, 32), comprising autograph manuscript material dated to the late 16th–early 17th century. The text is a hybrid Jesuit–Chinese ecclesiastical and dynastic accoun...
Saved in:
| Format: | Manuscripts |
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| Subjects: |
Classical Chinese Hermeneutics
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Dynastic Historiography
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Foundational Figures
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Ki
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Kiam Yuen-i
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Kuo-k’un-t’an
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Latinised Textual Fragments
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Lusophone Colonial Manuscript
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Marginalia
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Mytho-Historical Narrative
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Philological Commentary
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Scholarly Commentary
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Sinocentric Historical Tradition
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Syncretic Legendary Traditions
;
Ta-shen
;
Ti Ku
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T’inhul Empire
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Vernacular Annotations
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Zhou Dynasty Historiography
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Manuscripts
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| Online Access: | https://macau-legacy.usj.edu.mo/docs/G3ELC4PQ/viewer_G3ELC4PQ.html |
| Summary: | This abstract describes a fragmentary, multilingual historical document held in the Vatican Library Archives (Archival Reference 31, pp. 13, 32), comprising autograph manuscript material dated to the late 16th–early 17th century. The text is a hybrid Jesuit–Chinese ecclesiastical and dynastic account originating in the Portuguese colonial context of Macau, exhibiting layered Latin, vernacular Portuguese glosses (now fragmentary), and Sinicised theological vocabulary. It references the ‘Chu–T’an Dynasty’, a regional administrative toparchy formerly governed by Kuo Kum Tan Fu, and documents ritual, dynastic, and liturgical practices associated with figures including Kiano Yuen—a Sino-Portuguese religious figure attested in Macau ecclesiastical records—and the imperial figure ‘Cham’, cognomen of Eodice’s successor, styled *Imperia Rinavuno*. The manuscript records ceremonial processions, divine visions, contested notions of offering (*obiecti*), eschatological terminology (*Qyganrix Vepri Giuns* / *quors*), and liturgical adaptations—including Armenian-rite influences (*ex luti armaniam subspiciemus*) and wine-related Eucharistic observances. Marginalia, scribal annotations, and archival provenance indicate its use in cross-cultural catechetical instruction and syncretic theological discourse in late Ming–early Qing maritime Asia. The document serves as primary evidence for the interplay of Iberian missionary practice, Confucian historiographical conventions, and local religious conceptualisation in early modern Sino-Portuguese intellectual networks. |
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