ZOTTOLI, ANGELO. — Missionary in China and sinologist, b. on 21 June 1826 at Acerno (Salerno), d. at Schanghai on 9 November 1902.
Having completed his literary studies at the Jesuit College of Salerno, he fled his paternal home on 2 May 1843 and entered the Society of Jesus in Naples; the disturbances of 1848 forced him to take refuge in Malta. There he was joined that same year by Fr. Renato Massa, S.J., who had come to Rome on affairs concerning the Mission of Kiangnan in China; and with him he departed for that mission. Having arrived at Sciangai on 27 September of that year, he remained there until his death. Ordained a priest in 1850, he founded there that same year the first Catholic College in China, where he was prefect of studies for 6 years and rector for 13; from 1878 to 1902, spiritual father, master of the indigenous novices, and instructor of third probation; to this he added the spiritual care of the European and Chinese religious of the nearby convents. Between 1858 and 1871 he published about ten ascetical works in Chinese; but the work that made him famous in the field of sinology is his Cursus litteraturae Sinicae in 5 vols., comprising approximately 4,000 pages in all, published between 1879 and 1882, which earned the author the praise of the French Academy and the Stanislas Julien Prize. Demonstrating a unique mastery not only of the language of Confucius but also of that of Cicero, he succeeded in giving Westerners an exceptionally literal and accurate translation of the finest books of the entire immense ancient Chinese literature, such as the Family Instructions, the comedies, the novels, the Four Books, the Five Classics, and the great prose writers and poets of every age, continually setting the Chinese text
alongside the Latin translation, accompanied by a brief vocabulary and notes often displaying great erudition. A VI vol. was intended to be a repertory of all the characters and expressions contained in the preceding volumes; but when this work was nearly finished, he was advised to expand it and produce a Universal Dictionary of the Chinese language. He devoted the last 20 years of his life to it, composing a voluminous manuscript, which remained unpublished and is preserved in the Chinese Library of Zikawel.