An open book spread with an engraving of Confucius in a temple-like library on the left and a Latin biography headed The Life of Confucius, First of the Chinese Philosophers on the right.

1687 · Engraving and Latin printed text

The life of Confucius in Latin

Prospero Intorcetta, Philippe Couplet, Christian Herdtrich, François de Rougemont, and collaborators

Why it matters

The Latin edition transformed several Confucian classics and a biography of Confucius into a European philosophical book. It closes the chapter by shifting legibility from territory and spectacle toward ethics, government, and the idea of China as a model empire.

Publication
Confucius Sinarum Philosophus
Holding institution
Boston College Libraries, John J. Burns Library
Shelfmark
OCLC 1042535577
Rights
Public-domain work; faithful reproduction marked free of known restrictions

Intorcetta, Prospero, Philippe Couplet, Christian Herdtrich, François de Rougemont, and collaborators. Confucius Sinarum Philosophus. Paris: Daniel Horthemels, 1687.