Angelo Zottoli (Chao Deli 晁德蒞, 1826–1902) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and a

sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

Biography

Zottoli was born in

Acerno Acerno () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno in the region of Campania in south-western Italy. Geography Acerno is a large village located 40 km north-east of the provincial capital of Salerno at 727 metres above sea level i ...

on June 21, 1826, and joined the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

in 1843. In Naples he studied theology and philosophy, and his work as a teacher was greatly appreciated by his religious brothers. He then went as a missionary to China in 1848. From 1853 he taught, and was headmaster, at the St. Ignatius College for Chinese Christian students founded in 1849. He was known for his sinological works and was an important leader in the Shanghai Catholic community of

Zikawei Xujiahui (, , Romanization of Wu Chinese, romanized as: Zikawei, Ziccawei, or Siccawei) is a locality in Shanghai. It is a historic area of commerce and culture administratively within Xuhui District, which is named after the locality. The area is ...

, encouraging figures such as Ma Xiangbo to carefully study the Chinese and Western classics. During his stay in Zikawei, he also provided insights into the political, ritual and religious aspects of Chinese culture.

Sinology

Zottoli produced a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, but also of learners ( ...

of the

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

, ''Cursus litteraturae Sinicae neo-missionariis accommodatus'', in five volumes '' in octavo''. He also produced Latin

translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

s of some classic works of

Chinese literature The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years, and begins with the earliest recorded inscriptions, court archives, building to the major works of philosophy and history written during the Axial Age. The Han dynasty, Han (202 ...

(

Confucius Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...

), a Chinese–Latin

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

, and many

theological Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of an ...

texts in Chinese. He also produced several works in Latin and Chinese providing insights into Jesuit terminology in both languages; a key example is the ''Ascetica Nomenclatio'' (1877). In 1884 he was awarded the ''

Prix Stanislas Julien The Prix Stanislas Julien is a prize for a sinological work (usually) published in the previous year. It is named after the French sinologist, Stanislas Julien, and is awarded by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a Fren ...

'' by the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

for his ''Cursus litteraturae Sinicae neo-missionariis accommodatus''. He published several works on Chinese literature and Catholic theology in both Latin and Chinese.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zottoli, Angelo 1826 births 1902 deaths 19th-century Italian Jesuits Italian sinologists Italian lexicographers Italian Latinists Italian translators Italian male non-fiction writers Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Italian emigrants to China Jesuit missionaries in China Italian missionaries in China 19th-century translators 19th-century Italian male writers Translators to Latin Translators from Chinese Italian missionary linguists 19th-century writers in Latin Latin-language writers from Italy 19th-century lexicographers