Enciclopedia Cattolica

TRIGAULT, NICOLAS

Volume XII · p. 343 · 1954

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Image from page 343
Image from page 343
TRIGAULT, Nicolas. - Gesuita, missionario ed esploratore, n. a Douai il 3 marzo 1577, m. a Nanking il 14 nov. 1628.
TRIGAULT, Nicolas. - Gesuita, missionario ed esploratore, n. a Douai il 3 marzo 1577, m. a Nanking il 14 nov. 1628.

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

TRIGAULT, Nicolas. – Jesuit, missionary, and explorer, b. at Douai, 3 March 1577, d. at Nanking, 14 Nov. 1628.

He entered the Society in 1594 and in 1606 set out with Fr. Adam Schall for the missions of East Asia; by 1610 he was at Macao and shortly thereafter in China. He remained there only two years, during which he acquired a solid, if not extensive, knowledge of the state of the mission. At the end of 1612, Fr. N. Longobardi sent him to Europe to deal with various matters in Rome. He traveled overland, crossing India, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt, and arrived in Rome in 1615. There, having provided the necessary information, he sought and obtained substantial alms, especially from the dukes of Bavaria; he also collected a rich store of books, a treasure that remains even today among the most precious of the old Peking mission. From Paul V (brief of 26 March 1615) he secured broad privileges for the Chinese Church, including permission for the liturgy to be celebrated in the Chinese language of the scholars and the use of a head covering at Mass, since in China solemn acts could not be performed bareheaded. Only the concession regarding the head covering was implemented; the others were not, and the reason remains unclear. In 1617 he returned to the East with 44 new Jesuit missionaries and continued his literary work.

His principal work is *De christiana expeditione apud Sinas, suscepta a Societate Jesu, ex P. Ricci Commentariis* (Augsburg, 1615), soon translated into several languages and of great importance for the information it contains. There also survive various letters on his voyage in India (Cologne, 1620), on his work in Rome (v. BIBLICA), and an unpublished account of his overland journey from China to Rome. He also published: *De christianis apud Japonios triumphis... et de gravissimis persecutione exorta anno 1612 usque 1620* (Munich, 1623); *Vita Gasparis Barzaei* (Antwerp, 1610).

BIBL.: Sommervogel, VII, 237–44; Streit, V, p. 708 and passim; STUDIES: C. Deshaimes, *Vie du p. N. T. de la C. de J.*, Tournai 1864; H. Bosmans, *Docum. relatifs à la liturgie chinoise*, in *Anal. Boll.*, 33 (1914), pp. 274–83; A. Brou, *Notes pour servir à l'hist. du clergé indigène en Chine*, in *Rev. d'hist. des Missions*, 3 (1926), pp. 519–40; L. Pfister, *Notices biogr. et bibliogr. sur les Jesuites de l'ancienne mission de Chine*, I, Shanghai 1933, pp. 111–20; A. Vath, *J. A. Schall von Bell S. I.*, Cologne 1933, pp. 31–44; A. M. Beebode, *I doni del Duca di Parma Ranuccio I Farnese per l'Imperatore della Cina*, in *Le Missioni ill.*, 35 (1938), pp. 280–86; E. Lamalle, *La propagande du p. N. T. en faveur des missions de Chine (1616)*, in *Arch. hist. S. I.*, 9 (1940), pp. 49–120 (unpublished letter by T. on his work in Rome, pp. 90–120). On the *De christiana expeditione*, derived from the work of Fr. M. Ricci, and its value, etc., see P. D'Elia, *Daniele Bartoli e N. T.*, in *Riv. stor. ital.*, 5th ser., 3 (1938), pp. 77–92; id., *Fonti riccane*, III, Rome 1949, index, pp. 276–77.