WORLD-BOTT, THE NEW
Collection of letters and missionary reports published between 1726 and 1761, comprising five large volumes, subdivided into nine parts, which include forty sections, each containing 100 to 120 small booklets, numbered consecutively, each with its own title, preface, and index.
The collection was begun in 1726 by Fr. J. Stöcklein (v.), who started by translating the *Lettres édifiantes et curieuses* (v.) of the French Jesuits, to which were added the *Nouveaux mémoires des missions de la Compagnie de Jésus dans le Levant*, published in Paris from 1715 onward. However, the German versions hold particular value because they were based directly on the original letters, whereas the French editors had introduced extensive abridgments and alterations (cf. T. Chaney, *Vie du p. Roman Hinderer de la C.D.F.*, Tournai 1889, p. 12). To these letters, a great many others were added, received directly from German Jesuit missionaries scattered across all missions, with whom the editor maintained close contact; nor are all the reproduced letters from his confreres, but also from members of other religious orders and laypeople. The immense material was selected and organized according to a predetermined order. Notable are the careful attention to historical and critical accuracy, whereby letters lacking the heading, author’s signature, date (day, month, year, place), vivid descriptions, geographical clarifications, style and language, and edifying content (though without exaggeration or sensational or altered elements), as well as the numerous maps and copperplate engravings.
At the time of Fr. Stöcklein’s death, three volumes in five parts and twenty-four sections had been published, all issued in Augsburg-Graz: I, parts 1–8 (1726; 2nd ed. 1729); II, 1, parts 9–11 (1727; 2nd ed. 1729); III, 1, parts 12–16 (1729); III, 1, parts 17–20 (1732); III, 1, parts 21–24 (posthumously edited by Fr. Karl Mayer, 1736). Stöcklein’s successors generally adhered to his program, and there was no shortage of material, since the number of German Jesuits in the missions was continually increasing, and their labors were expanding into new mission fields. Volumes IV and V were published in Vienna. Fr. Pietro Probst published vol. IV, 1, parts 25–28 (1748); Fr. Franz Keller, vol. IV, 1, parts 29–32 (1755) and vol. V, 1, parts 33–36 (1758); Fr. Franz Xaver Socher, vol. V, 1, parts 37–40 (1761); of these last volumes, only one copy is known to exist in Vienna (cf. A. Váth, s.V. in L. Koch, *Jesuiten-Lexikon*, Paderborn 1934, col. 1838).
This collection, a valuable source of information, widely read with attention to its date of publication in all convents and at the courts of princes and the emperor, is now scarcely to be found complete.