GRUEBER, JOHANN. — Jesuit, explorer, born at Linz on 28 Oct. 1623, died at Sarospatak (Hungary) on 30 Sept. 1680. Invited to go to China by Fr. B. Diestel, with the assignment of finding an overland route to reach that Empire, they departed together from Venice toward the end of 1656 and, traveling through Smyrna, Asia Minor, and Armenia, reached Ormuz and, by sea, Macao, in 1658.
In 1659, assigned to the observatory at Peking as an assistant to Fr. A. Schall, he won the esteem of the Emperor and, two years later, was charged with attempting again the undertaking—successful only halfway on the first occasion—of finding an overland route between China and Europe. Departing from Peking with Fr. A. d’Orville on 13 Apr. 1661, he traveled through Hsi-ning, Lahsa, and Nepal, reaching Agra in March 1662. When d’Orville died there and was replaced by Fr. E. Roth,
Abandoning the new plan of reaching China through Russia, he instead put another into effect, setting out toward Asia Minor; but, having fallen ill at Constantinople, he retraced his steps. Later he is found serving as military chaplain to the imperial troops in Transylvania, and it is known that he died at Sarospatak.
Besides several unpublished letters, G. left an account of the journey from Peking through Tibet, published by Fr. A. Kircher in his China... illustrata, Amsterdam 1667, pp. 64–78; the account and letters in M. Thevenot, Relation de divers voyages curieux, IV, Paris 1672, pp. 1–23; and various unpublished letters in C. Wessels, New documents relating the journey of Fr. G., in Arch. histor. S. I., 9 (1940), pp. 281–302.