Also known as:
Italian: Ippolito Desideri da Pistoia
DESIDERI, IPPOLITO. - Jesuit, missionary and explorer, b. at Pistoia on 21 Dec. 1684, d. at Rome on 14 Aug. 1733. Sent to India to re-establish the mission of Tibet, already begun by Fr. A. de Andrade (1624), he set out from Delhi on 24 Sept. 1714 and, by a wide circuit through the cities of Kashmir and of Lahta, reached Lhasa on 18 May 1716, well received by the king and by the Dalai Lama.
Having obtained permission to stay for the study of the religion of the Lamas and the preaching of the Gospel, he applied himself to the language and to the reading of numerous volumes containing the religious doctrines of the Tibetans, succeeding in composing apologetic works, which met with considerable favor. The invasion of the Tartars (1717) and the extermination of the royal family forced him to withdraw to Takpo-khier, near the Capuchins, where he remained to complete his works, until 1721, when, by virtue of a decree of Propaganda Fide, which assigned Tibet to the Capuchins, he received the order to return to India, whence in 1727 he set out again for Rome.
Besides several letters and four works in Tibetan, still unpublished, he wrote: Notizie storiche del Tibet e memorie dei viaggi e missioni ivi fatte dal p. I. D. d. C. d. G. Dal medesimo scritte e dedicate, 1712-23, also unpublished, which cause him to be considered one of the best explorers and describers of Tibet (S. Hedin, Southern Tibet, I [Stockholm 1915], pp. 278-79).
Bibliography5 worksSommervogel, II, coll. 1963-64; C. Puini: Il Tibet (Geografia, storia, religione, costumi) secondo la relazione del viaggio di I. D., 1715-2
BIBL.: Sommervogel, II, coll. 1963-64; C. Puini: Il Tibet (Geografia, storia, religione, costumi) secondo la relazione del viaggio di I. D., 1715-21 (Memorie della Soc. geogr. ital., 10), Rome 1904; C. Wessels, Early Jesuits travellers in Central Asia, The Hague 1924, pp. 205-81 (with photographic reproductions and index of the historical notices); F. de Filippi, An account of Tibet. The travels of I. D. of Pistoia, London 1932 (abridged version); G. Castellani, Il p. I. D. e la sua missione nel Tibet, Rome 1934.
Testore, Celestino. “Desideri, ippolito.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, coll. 1473–1474. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/desideri-ippolito.
MLA
Testore, Celestino. “Desideri, ippolito.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, coll. 1473–1474. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/desideri-ippolito.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec4_desideri_ippolito,
author = {Testore, Celestino},
title = {Desideri, ippolito},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IV},
pages = {1473--1474},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/desideri-ippolito}
}
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