°ÅÀÖ¶ÌÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 324

A Sad Case of Neglect: The First Chinese Book in °ÅÀÖ¶ÌÊÓƵ Library

Peter Kornicki
Issue number
(2018): 10

It is not really a book to linger over: it is rather scruffy, part of the cover is missing, and some of the pages are torn and ragged.  What is more, it consists only of volume six and there is no sign of the missing volumes.  And to cap it all, it is in Chinese. What was a book like this doing in °ÅÀÖ¶ÌÊÓƵ Library in the seventeenth century, when nobody in England could read Chinese?

 

°ÅÀÖ¶ÌÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, MS 324

 

°ÅÀÖ¶ÌÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford