Research Tools
The Library聽is the heart of the Ricci Institute and the聽online catalog聽is its primary gateway. Both Western language sources and materials in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are cataloged.聽
The Library provides service to Ricci Institute scholars and the Boston College community.聽 Those who are not members of the BC community must first submit a research request via e-mail.聽
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Catalog searches for Western names and titles are done normally. For CJK searches you may use either CJK or Romanized input. For Chinese input use Traditional Chinese characters only, or Japanese or Korean for materials in those languages. You may find it faster to search using Pinyin (for Chinese), Hepburn (for Japanese) or McCune-Reischauer for Korean (more recent entries include author/title/topic based on the Revised Romanization of Korean聽 Gugeoui Romaja Pyogibeop 甑柎鞚� 搿滊鞛� 響滉赴氩� in addition to MC-R).聽
The catalog generally follows Library of Congress conventions but we depart in many details, such as use of aggregated pinyin, use of Romanized pinyin and CJK scripts in the same field, customized subject metadata for special topics, and other modifications that enhance utility.聽
Basic Search Instructions:聽
- You may search by AUTHOR, by TITLE, by SUBJECT and/or by KEYWORD in any combination. Type in all or any part of a name, title, subject, and/or keyword. Hit 鈥淓NTER or click "SEARCH" to submit your query.聽
- Search terms are not case sensitive.聽
- Ignore initial articles for Western languages: A, An, The, Los, L鈥�, Le, etc.聽
- Diacritical marks are optional and may be omitted, e.g. either colec莽茫o or coleccao, Sch眉tte or Schutte, etc.聽
- Click on the small blue triangles next to a title to open Quick View, a truncated display with author, date, location, and call number. Click on the title itself to view the complete record.聽
- You may search in Chinese (traditional characters only), Japanese, or Korean for CJK language items.聽
- Click the Advanced Search link to access detailed searchable fields: Publisher, Language, Series, ISBN, etc.聽
- You may browse through a list of titles by clicking the first title letter on the Titles Index bar.聽
- For the history of the library and a list of our collections and archival materials see聽the Collections tab.
Our collections include some聽100,000 volumes. The majority of these volumes concern traditional China with a special concentration on the Jesuits missions, East-West cultural exchange, and the history of the Ming-Qing period, roughly from the 16th-19th centuries.
聽In addition to these volumes there are more than 300,00 digital documents, photos, manuscripts, microfilms, paintings, and artefacts. Two of the original components include the Library of the China Province of the Society of Jesus Bibliotheca Sinensis Societatis Iesu compiled by Fr. Albert Chan, S.J., and the China Archives of Fr. Francis A. Rouleau, S.J. Since 1985 the Library has added thousands of volumes annually. About 80% of the volumes are in Chinese, with additional materials in Latin, Portuguese, French, Japanese, English, Spanish, and Korean.
Fr. Francis A. Rouleau, S.J.聽(1900-1984), arrived in Shanghai in 1929, and lived there until 1952.聽A historian and theologian, he spent many years collecting archival materials concerning the Chinese Rites Controversy. His first collection was destroyed in Shanghai in 1949, and Fr. Rouleau was compelled to rebuild it by traveling to archives in Rome, Paris, London, Portugal, the Philippines, and elsewhere, making microfilms, copies, and transcriptions of source material. Now housed at the Ricci Institute, Fr. Rouleau鈥檚 life-long collection contains hundreds of documents (over 50,000 pages) in six different European languages. To preserve and improve ease of use, most of the Rouleau microfilm archive has been digitized onto compact disk. In addition, there are more than 200 rare European books in the Rouleau Archives.
Fr. Albert Chan, S.J.聽(1915-2005), curator of the Bibliotheca Sinensis Societatis Iesu (also known as the Jesuit Chinese Library) and senior research fellow at the Ricci Institute, was a historian specializing in Ming history with a passion for books. As a young Jesuit in Hong Kong in the 1930鈥檚 he had already collected over 1,000 volumes, only to have them later stolen or destroyed. He began collecting anew, only to have his second collection destroyed during World War II. After the war, Fr. Chan assembled his third collection, purchasing books (and sometimes entire collections) on his small stipend. Now one of the largest private collections on China in the world, the Bibliotheca Sinensis Societatis Iesu today contains over 70,000 volumes (the majority in Chinese) including many rare and important editions. Fr. Chan also inspected other China-related collections, producing a catalog of Chinese holdings of the Jesuit Archives in Rome.
By the early 1980鈥檚 the Society of Jesus felt that the Bibliotheca Sinensis Societatis Iesu could form the base for an international center for the study of the historical and cultural ties between China and the West. The Ricci Institute, founded in 1984 by Fr. Francis A. Rouleau, S.J., Fr. Edward J. Malatesta, S.J., Sr. Mary Celeste Rouleau, S.M., and Dr. Theodore N. Foss, Ph.D., was chosen as the repository, and in 1985 Fr. Chan and the collection arrived at USF.聽From 1985-1997, under the Directorship of Fr. Edward J. Malatesta, S.J. (1932-1998), the Ricci Institute added many important items in both Chinese and Western languages. Fr. Malatesta sponsored and initiated many research and publishing projects with colleagues in China and Europe, resulting in such works as the Shanghai Library Catalog of Western Rare Books, Departed Yet Present on the Zhalan cemetery, and The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. The Malatesta/Phillipps China Archives include manuscript materials from the Philip Robinson collection on the Chinese Rites controversy, source books, photographs, and documents on Jesuit sites in China, and papers concerning Christianity in China.The Library also houses a number of other archives which include:
Fr. Malatesta sponsored and initiated many research and publishing projects with colleagues in China and Europe, resulting in such works as the Shanghai Library Catalog of Western Rare Books, Departed Yet Present on the Zhalan cemetery, and The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. The Malatesta/Phillipps China Archives include manuscript materials from the Philip Robinson collection on the Chinese Rites controversy; source books, photographs, and documents on Jesuit sites in China; and papers concerning Christianity in China. The Library also houses a number of other archives which include:
ARSI Japonica-Sinica Collection [Digital]
Francis A. Rouleau S.J. Rare Book Collection [Zikawei Library]
Francis A. Rouleau S.J. Archives [Microfilm/Digital]
F. Rouleau-T. Carroll S.J. Archives [Sino-Jesuit History & Chinese Rites manuscripts]
Edward J. Malatesta S.J. China Archives [Papers & Philip Robinson manuscripts]
Frederick J. Foley Photograph Collection [Physical & Digital]
Alden J. Stevenson S.J. Photograph Collection [Physical & Digital]
Celestial Icons: Chinese-Christian Scroll Paintings [Physical & Digital]
Canton Archdiocese Archives [Physical & Digital]
Passionist China Collection [Digital]
Biblioteca da Ajuda Jesu铆tas na 脕sia [Digital]
Jinling Women鈥檚 College of Nanjing Archives [partial]聽
The China Historical Christian Database adheres to the concept of shared data, and has established strong ties with institutions in China and Europe so that the most relevant holdings are readily accessible to our users.聽
In order to enhance usability, this site has been divided into five main categories: Archives, Biographies, Bibliographies, Institutions, and Directory. We humbly invite friends, scholars, and Institutions worldwide to join us in making resources available in this important field. This data base will be comprehensive, treating this history from its origins to the present and considering Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians, both Chinese and non-Chinese.