The History of That Great and Renowned Monarchy of China by Alvarez Semedo as a Work of Proto-English Sinology

Abstract

This paper, after briefly presenting the life of Alvarez Semedo SJ and the textual history of his work, will first show how the title page of the English translation of Semedo’s History was re-written to lessen the text’s origin as the work of a Jesuit and also consider the quality of the English translation. Next, it will look at how Semedo structured his account of China and what new information about China his book gave to English readers. The final topic to be discussed is how this English translation reflected the development of an English vocabulary to discuss China, its geography, its cities, its government and its culture.