Zottoli, Angelo

ZOTTOLI, ANGELO. - Missionary in China and sinologist, b. June 21, 1826 at Acerno (Salerno), d. at Shanghai on Nov. 9, 1902.

After completing his literary studies at the Jesuit College of Salerno, he fled from his father's house on May 2, 1843 and entered the Society of Jesus in Naples; whence the upheavals of 1848 forced him to take refuge in Malta. There he was reached the same year by Fr. Renato Massa, S.J., who had come to Rome on business of the Kiangnan Mission in China; and with him he set out for that same mission. Having reached Shanghai on Sept. 27 of that year, he remained there until his death. Ordained a priest in 1850, in that same year he founded there the first Catholic college in China, where he was prefect of studies for 6 years and rector for 13; from 1878 to 1902 he was spiritual father, master of the native novices and instructor of the third probation; to this he added the spiritual care of the European and Chinese religious women of the nearby convents. Between 1858 and 1871 he published some ten short ascetical works in Chinese; but the work that made him famous in the field of sinology is his Cursus litteraturae Sinicae in 5 vols. totaling about 4000 pages, which appeared between 1879 and 1882, and which earned the author the praise of the French Academy and the Stanislas Julien Prize. Giving proof of a unique mastery not only of the language of Confucius, but also of that of Cicero, he succeeded in giving Westerners a translation as literal and exact as possible of the best books of the whole immense ancient Chinese literature, such as the Family Instructions, the plays, the novels, the Four Books, the Five Classics, the great prose writers and the great poets of every age, continually placing side by side the Chinese text and the Latin translation, accompanied by a brief vocabulary and by notes often of great erudition. A VI vol. was to have been a repertory of all the characters and all the expressions contained in the preceding volumes; but when this work was almost finished, he was advised to expand it and to make a universal Dictionary of the Chinese language. He devoted to it the last 20 years of his life, composing a voluminous manuscript, which remained unpublished and is preserved in the Chinese Library of Zikawel.

Pasquale D'Elia