GONÇALVEZ, JOAQUÍN ALONSO. - Sinologist, b. at Tojal (Trás-os-Montes, Portugal) on 23 March 1781, d. at Macao on 3 Oct. 1841. Admitted to the Congregation of the Mission on 17 May 1799, he left for China in 1812, settling in Macao while awaiting the possibility of entering the imperial court at Peking. He therefore devoted himself to the study of mathematics and the sciences. But when this aim lapsed, he turned his interest to the Chinese language, which he cultivated with genuine passion.
His principal works are: Grammatica latina ad uvum Sinensium iuvenum (Macao 1828); Arte china constante de alphabeto e grammatica, comprehendendo modelos das diferentes composiciones (ibid. 1829); Diccionario portuguez-china no estilo vulgar mandarin e classico general (ibid. 1831); Vocabularium latino-sinicum pronuntiatione mandarina latinis litteris (ibid. 1837); Lexicon manuale latino-sinicum
continens omnia vocabula utilia et primitiva, etiam Scripturae sacrae (ibid. 1839); Lexicon magnum latino-sinicum (ibid. 1841). The following remain in manuscript: Lexicon magnum sinico-latinum and Versao do Novo Testamento en china.