Gaubil, Antoine - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 1165

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

GAUBIL, ANTOINE. - Jesuit, sinologist, born in Gaillac (Aveyron) on July 14, 1689, died in Beijing on July 24, 1759. A missionary in China from 1722, he served there as director of the Imperial College of Young Diplomats and devoted himself to the study of the history, religion, geography, and above all the astronomy of the Chinese, treating them extensively in specific works sent to France for printing, or in reports made available to scientists (N. Fréret; J. N. de l'Isle), or in numerous letters to various individuals. He was also a member of the Academy of St. Petersburg and the Academy of Sciences of Paris.

His works are of great value and in significant number; many remain unpublished; those that were printed bear deplorable mutilations and even errors due to unscrupulous publishers. Principal works: Histoire de l'astronomie chinoise (this is vol. II of the work by Fr. Et. Souciet: Observations mathématiques astronomiques... [Paris 1732]); Traité de l'astronomie chinoise (ibid., III, ibid. 1732; vol. I [ibid. 1729] also contains many reports by Fr. G.); Histoire de Gen-ethis-cun et de toute la dynastie des Mongues, ses successeurs (ibid. 1739); Histoire de la grande dynastie des Thang (in Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences... des Chinois, XV [ibid. 1791], XVI [ibid. 1812]); Traité de la chronologie chinoise, posthumous edition edited by S. de Sacy (ibid. 1814); Les livres sacrés de l'Orient, posthumous edition edited by G. Pauthier (ibid. 1812); other reports appeared in Lettres édifiantes et curieuses (XII, XIII, Lyon 1819) and in Philosophical transactions (1750-58).

BIBL.: Life: Lettres du p. J. Amist à Monsieur de l'Isle de l'Accademia des sciences à Pékin, le 1 sept. 1735, in Lettres édif. et curieuses, XIII, Paris 1816, pp. 90-100. - Studies: Sommervogel, III, coll. 1257-64; IX, coll. 399-400; J. Brucker, La mission de Ciriac de 1722 à 1735. Quelques pages de l'histoire des missionnaires français à Pékin au XVIIIe siècle, d'après des documents inédits, in Rev. des questions hist., 20 (1881, 1), pp. 491-532; id., Correspondence scientifique d'un missionnaire français à Pékin au XVIIIe siècle, in Rev. du monde catholique, 1883-84; id., La Chine et l'Extrême Orient d'après les travaux historiques du p. G. A., ibid., 1885, 1, pp. 485-593; C. Rechenwonnex, J. Amist et les derniers survivants de la mission française à Pékin, Paris 1914, pp. 75-78; L. Pfister, Natives biograph. et bibliograph. sur les Jénuites de l'ancienne mission de Chine, 1552-1773, II, Shanghai 1934, pp. 667-93. Celestino Testore