View source for Johann Grueber

{{Short description|Austrian Jesuit missionary, explorer and astronomer}}
{{more footnotes|date=May 2014}}
{{chinese
|c={{linktext|白|乃|心}}
|p=Bái Nǎixīn
|w=Pai Nai-hsin
}}
'''Johann Grueber''' or '''Grüber''' {{smaller|[[Society of Jesus|SJ]]}} (28 October 1623{{nbsp}}{{ndash}} 30 September 1680) was an Austrian [[Jesuit]] [[Jesuit China Mission|missionary]] who served as an explorer of China and Tibet. He worked as an [[Chinese astronomy|imperial astronomer]] in China.

==Life==
Grueber was born in [[Linz]] on 28 October 1623. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1641 and went to China in 1656, where he was active at the court of Peking as professor of mathematics and assistant to Father [[Adam Schall von Bell]]. In 1661 his superiors sent him, together with the Belgian Father [[Albert Dorville]] or d'Orville, to Rome in order to defend Schall's work on the Chinese calendar on the charge of having encouraged 'superstitious practices'.

As it was impossible to journey by sea on account of the blockade of [[Macau]] by the Dutch, they conceived the daring idea of going overland from Peking to Goa (India) by way of [[Tibet]] and [[Nepal]]. This led to Grueber's memorable journey (Dorville died on the way), which won him fame as one of the most successful explorers of the seventeenth century (Tonnier). They first travelled to [[Xining]], on the borders of [[Gansu]]; thence through the [[Qinghai|Kukunor]] territory and [[Zunghar Khanate|Kalmyk Tartary]] (Desertum Kalnac) to [[Lhasa]]. They crossed the difficult mountain passes of the [[Himalayas]], arrived at [[Kathmandu]], [[Nepal]], and thence descended into the  basin of the [[Ganges]]: [[Patna]] and [[Agra]], the former capital of the [[Mughal Empire]]. This journey lasted 214 days.

Dorville died at Agra, a victim of the hardships he had undergone. Jesuit Father [[Heinrich Roth]], a [[Sanskrit]] scholar, substituted for Dorville and with Grueber carried on the overland journey through [[Persia]] and [[Turkey]], reaching Rome on the 2 February 1664. Their journey showed the possibility of a direct overland connection between China and India, and the value and significance of the [[Himalayas|Himalayan]] passes.

Biographer [[Richard Tronnier]] says: "It is due to Grueber's energy that Europe received the first correct information concerning Thibet and its inhabitants".<ref name="Lockyer1904">{{cite book|author=Sir Norman Lockyer|title=Nature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T5RFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA255|year=1904|publisher=Macmillan Journals Limited|pages=255}}</ref> Although [[Oderico of Pordenone]] had traversed Tibet, in 1327, and visited Lhasa, he had not written any account of this journey. [[Antonio de Andrada]] and [[Manuel Marquez]] had pushed their explorations as far as [[Tsaparang]] on the northern [[Setledj]].

Emperor [[Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor|Leopold I]] requested that Grueber return to China via Russia in order to explore the possibility of another land route through central Asia, but the journey ended at [[Constantinople]] as Grueber fell seriously sick. He was obliged to return. Though in poor health Grueber lived another 14 years as preacher and spiritual guide in the Jesuit schools of [[Trnava]] ([[Slovakia]]) and [[Sárospatak]] ([[Hungary]]), in the latter of which he died on 30 September 1680.

==Works==
[[File:Kircher Dalai Lama.jpg|thumb|Statues of the Fifth Dalai Lama and (apparently) [[Güshi Khan]] seen by Grueber in the lobby of Dalai Lama's palace]]
An account of this first journey through Tibet in modern times by a European was published in 1667 by [[Athanasius Kircher]] to whom Grueber had left his journals and charts, which he had supplemented by numerous verbal and written additions. The 1670 French edition of the same work also incorporated an exchange of letters between Grueber and [[Ferdinand II de' Medici]], [[grand duke of Tuscany|grand duke]] of [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]].

For other letters of Grueber see "Neue Welt-Bott" (Augsburg and Gratz, 1726), no. 34; [[Jean de Thévenot|Thévenot]] (whose acquaintance Grueber had made in Constantinople), "Divers voyages curieux" (Paris, 1666, 1672, 1692), II; extracts in Ritter, "Asien" (Berlin, 1833), II, 173; III, 453; IV, 88, 183; Anzi, "II genio vagante" (Parma, 1692), III, 331-399.

{{ref begin}}
* {{citation |date=1667 |title=[[China Illustrata|China... Illustrata...]] |language=la |trans-title=China... Illustrated... |first=Athanasius |last=Kircher |author-link=Athanasius Kircher |location=Amsterdam |publisher=[[Jacob van Meurs]], Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, & Elizaeus Weyerstraet }}, pp. 64{{ndash}}67.
* {{citation |date=1670 |title=[[China Illustrata|Le Chine... Illustrée...]] |language=fr |trans-title=China... Illustrated... |first=Athanasius |last=Kircher |author-link=Athanasius Kircher |author2=Johann Grueber |author3=Ferdinand II de' Medici |display-authors=1 |translator=François Savinien d'Alquié |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge & Heirs of Elizaeus Weyerstraet }}.
* {{citation |last=Magalotti |first=Lorenzo |author-link=Lorenzo Magalotti |contribution=Viaggio del P. Giovanni Grueber Tornando per Terra da China in Europa |language=it |trans-contribution=Journey of Fr. Johann Grueber Returning across the Earth from China to Europe |location=Paris |publisher=André Cramoisy |date=1672 |editor=Melchisédech Thévenot |editor-link=Melchisédech Thévenot |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FS6VhzSD-FAC&pg=RA6-PA1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FS6VhzSD-FAC&pg=PA21 |title=Relations de Divers Voyages Curieux, qui n'Ont Point Esté Publiées, ou qui Ont Esté Traduites d'Hacluyt, de Purchas, & d'Autres Voyageurs Anglois, Hollandois, Portugais, Alemands, Italiens, Espagnols, & de Quelques Persans, Arabes, & Autres Autheurs Orientaux |trans-title=Accounts of Various Interesting Journeys, which Have Not Been Published, or which Have Been Translated from Hakluyt, Purchas, & Other English, Dutch, Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Travelers, & Some Persians, Arabs, & Other Eastern Authors |volume=II, pt. III |ref={{harvid|Magalotti|1672}} }}.
* {{citation |last=Grueber |first=Johann |author-link=Johann Grueber |display-authors=0 |contribution=Autres Pieces sur le Suiet du Voyage du P. Grueber |language=la |trans-contribution=Other Pieces on the Subject of Fr. Grueber's Journey |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FS6VhzSD-FAC&pg=RA6-PA18 |title=''Ibid.'' |ref={{harvid|Grueber|1672}} }}.
* {{citation |last=Grueber |first=Johann |author-link=Johann Grueber |author2=[[Albert d'Orville]] |display-authors=0 |contribution=Voyage à la Chine des PP. I. Grueber et d'Orville |language=fr |trans-contribution=Fathers J. Grueber and d'Orville's Journey to China |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FS6VhzSD-FAC&pg=RA7-PA1 |title=''Ibid.'' |ref={{harvid|Grueber & al.|1672}} }}.
* {{citation |last=Grueber |first=Johann |author-link=Johann Grueber |author2=[[Albert d'Orville]] |display-authors=0 |title=Voyage Fait à la Chine en 1665 par les RR. PP. Grueber et d'Orville Iesuites |language=fr |trans-title=A Journey Made to China in 1665 by the Rev. Fathers Grueber and d'Orville, Jesuits |location=Paris |publisher=Gervais Clousier & André Cramoisy |date=1673 }}.
* {{citation |last=Magalotti |first=Lorenzo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TNoAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP7 |title=China and France, or, Two Treatises: The One, of the Present State of China, as to the Government, Customs, and Manners, of the Inhabitants Thereof, Never Yet Known to Us in Europe, from the Observations of Two Jesuites Lately Returned from That Countrey... The Other, Containing the Most Remarkable Passages of the Reign and Life of the Present French King, Lewis the Fourteenth, and of the Valour of Our English in His Armies |publisher=Thomas Newcombe for Samuel Lowndes |location=London |date=1676 }}, a translation of Melchisedech Thevenot's French translation of Magalotti's Italian original.
* {{citation |date=1696 |title=Voyage à la Chine des PP. J. Grueber et d'Orville |language=fr |trans-title=Fathers J. Grueber and d'Orville's Journey to China |publisher= |location= |last=Grueber |first=Johann |display-authors=0 }}.
* {{citation |last=Magalotti |first=Lorenzo |author-link=Lorenzo Magalotti |contribution=Relazione della China, Cavata da un Ragionamento Tenuto col P. Giovanni Grueber della Compagnia di Gesù nel Suo Passaggio per Firenze l'Anno 1665 |language=it |trans-contribution=Report on China, Derived from a Discussion with Father Johann Grueber of the Company of Jesus when He Passed through Florence in the Year 1665 |publisher=Giuseppe Manni |location=Florence |date=1697 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jxpTaybIO98C&pg=PA1 |title=Notizie Varie dell' Imperio della China e di Qualche Altro Paese Adiacente con la Vita di Confucio il Gran Savio dell China, e un Saggio della Sua Morale |trans-title=Miscellaneous Notices of the Empire of China and Some Other Adjacent Countries with the Life of Confucius the Great Sage of China and an Essay of His Morals |editor=Jacopo Carlieri }}.
{{ref end}}

==See also==
* [[Jesuit China Mission]]

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
{{ref begin}}
* Ashley, ''Collection of Voyages'' (London, 1745–47), Vol. IV, pp. 651 sq.
* {{cite book |first=George |last=Bogle |author2=Thomas Manning |display-authors=1 |title=Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa |editor=C.R. Markham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rrsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR52 |year=1876}}
* Carlieri, ''Notizie varie dell' Imperio della China'' (Florence, 1697).
* {{citation |last=Tronnier |contribution=Die Durchquerung Tibets seitens der Jesuiten Joh. Grueber und Albert de Dorville im Jahre 1661 |title=Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin |location=Berlin |publisher= |date=1904 |pages=328–361 |language=de |trans-title= }}.
* Von Richthofen, China (Berlin, 1877), 761, etc., with routes and plate, the best monograph
* Wessels, C., Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia, The Hague, 1924, pp.&nbsp;164–203.
{{ref end}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}

* {{CE1913|wstitle= Johann Grueber |volume= 7 |last= Huonder |first= Anthony|short= 1}}

{{Christianity in Tibet}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grueber, Johann}}
[[Category:1623 births]]
[[Category:1665 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Austrian Jesuits]]
[[Category:Jesuit missionaries in China]]
[[Category:Austrian Roman Catholic missionaries]]
[[Category:Explorers of China]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in China]]
[[Category:Christian missionaries in Central Asia]]
[[Category:Explorers of Central Asia]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in Tibet]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in Tibet]]
[[Category:17th-century Austrian astronomers]]
[[Category:Jesuit scientists]]
[[Category:People from Linz]]
[[Category:Jesuit missionaries in India]]
[[Category:Explorers of South Asia]]
[[Category:Explorers of Nepal]]