GRUEBER, JOHANN. - Jesuit, explorer, b. at Linz on 28 Oct. 1623, d. at Sarospatak (Hungary) on 30 Sept. 1680. Invited to go to China by Fr. B. Diestel, with the task of finding an overland route to reach that Empire, they set out together from Venice at the end of 1656 and, through Smyrna, Asia Minor and Armenia, reached Ormuz and, by sea, Macao, in 1658.
In 1659, assigned to the observatory of Peking as an assistant to Fr. A. Schall, he won the esteem of the Emperor and, two years later, was charged with attempting once more the feat, which had succeeded the first time only halfway, of finding an overland route between China and Europe. Having set out from Peking with Fr. A. d'Orville on 13 Apr. 1661, through Hsi-ning, Lhasa and Nepal, he reached Agra in March 1662. When d'Orville died there and was replaced by Fr. E. Roth, through India, Persia and Asia Minor he reached Rome on 20 Febr. 1664.
Having abandoned the new plan of reaching China through Russia, he carried out another instead, heading toward Asia Minor, but, having fallen ill at Constantinople, he retraced his steps. Later he is found as military chaplain of the imperial troops in Transylvania, and it is known that he died at Sarospatak.
There remain of G., besides several unpublished letters, an account of the journey from Peking, through Tibet, published by Fr. A. Kircher in his China... illustrata, Amsterdam 1667, pp. 64-78; an account and letters in M. Thevenot, Relation de divers voyages curieux, IV, Paris 1672, pp. 1-23; various unpublished letters in C. Wessels, New documents relating the journey of Fr. G., in Arch. histor. S. I., 9 (1940), pp. 281-302.
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