# Catechismus pro Barmanis eorum lingua primisque nunc litterarum typis excuses. Addita etiam latina interpretatione opera clericorum regularium S. Paulii in regno avae missionariorum adprobante Sac. congreg. de propagande fide



**Dati editoriali:** Rome, Typis Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1785-1786

**Codice archivio:** 185

**Prezzo:** 1500.00 USD

**Stato commerciale:** Disponibile

**Link ufficiale:** https://www.govirarebooks.com/products/catechismus-pro-barmanis-1785

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## Descrizione accademica e analisi

8vo (228x151 mm). Three separately titled parts bound together: [4], 46; [4], 48, [2]; 76 pp. The first two parts, Catechismus pro Barmanis and Catechismi pars altera, printed in Burmese characters; the third, Interpretatio Catechismi pro Barmanis, containing the Latin translation and dated 1786. Woodcut emblem of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide on the title-pages; Burmese texts enclosed within ornamental typographical borders. Contemporary plain paper wrappers, soiled, with marginal tears and a small portion missing from the rear wrapper. Internally a very good copy, substantially uncut and with many leaves unopened. First edition of one of the earliest extensive texts printed in Burmese with European movable metal type. Published at Rome in 1785-1786, the Catechismus pro Barmanis belongs to a pioneering programme of Burmese-language printing undertaken by the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in collaboration with the Clerics Regular of St Paul, commonly known as the Barnabites, whose missionaries had established a presence in the Burmese kingdom of Ava. The work occupies a particularly important position in the history of Southeast Asian typography. Although Burma possessed a sophisticated manuscript culture long before the arrival of European missionaries, the manufacture of Burmese movable type presented substantial technical difficulties. Its rounded characters, complex vowel notation and combinations of consonants and subsidiary signs required a typographical system fundamentally different from the Latin alphabet. The Roman editions produced by Propaganda Fide were among the first successful attempts to adapt European letterpress technology to the written Burmese language. The immediate antecedent of the catechism was the Alphabetum Barmanum seu Bomanum regni Avae finitimarumque regionum, published by the same press in 1776. Edited by Giovanni Cristoforo Amaduzzi and based on linguistic material brought from Burma by the Barnabite missionary Melchiorre Carpani, the Alphabetum introduced European readers to the Burmese writing system and reproduced elementary religious texts in Burmese characters. It is generally regarded as the earliest surviving substantial publication printed in Burmese movable type. The linguistic foundations of this undertaking had been laid by missionaries working directly in the kingdom of Ava. Particularly important was Giovanni Maria Percoto (1729–1776), who devoted considerable effort to studying Burmese and compiling translations, grammatical materials and a multilingual dictionary. His work belonged to a broader missionary programme in which language acquisition was essential not merely for preaching but also for producing texts capable of being read and transmitted within Burmese society. The catechism was the outcome of a subsequent stage in this programme, associated particularly with the Barnabite missionary Gaetano Maria Mantegazza. During his journey to Rome in 1784, Mantegazza brought two Burmese converts, one of whom had previously been a Buddhist monk and was therefore familiar with the local learned tradition. Contemporary historical accounts associate their presence in Rome with the preparation and printing of Burmese religious works, including prayers, dialogues and catechetical texts. Their participation is especially significant because it indicates that the production of these books was not exclusively an exercise in European transcription but involved the practical linguistic knowledge of Burmese collaborators. The Catechismus pro Barmanis extended the achievement of the 1776 Alphabetum from the presentation of an unfamiliar writing system to the sustained communication of Christian doctrine. Its two Burmese sections, accompanied by a separately printed Latin translation, created a bilingual instrument capable of serving different audiences: Burmese-speaking converts and catechumens, missionaries learning to teach in the vernacular, and ecclesiastical authorities seeking to understand or supervise the doctrinal content of the translation. This combination of vernacular text and Latin interpretation is particularly revealing of the intellectual organisation of missionary printing. The Burmese text was intended to function within local religious instruction, while its Latin counterpart allowed the European ecclesiastical administration to review the theological vocabulary and arguments employed. The volume thus illustrates how translation, typographical technology and institutional authority interacted within the missionary enterprise. The three-part arrangement is itself bibliographically significant. The first two sections appeared in 1785, whereas the Latin Interpretatio bears the date 1786. The publication therefore developed across two successive years, with separately titled and paginated components. The importance of this edition extends beyond its immediate missionary purpose. Its production reveals the collaborative nature of the earliest European printing in Burmese, bringing together the linguistic knowledge of missionaries in Southeast Asia, Burmese-speaking intermediaries, specialist typefounding and composition in Rome, and the organisational and financial resources of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide. It also stands at the beginning of a longer history of Burmese-language printing. The later establishment of printing presses within Burma, particularly under nineteenth-century Protestant missions, eventually shifted the centre of vernacular typographical production from Europe to Southeast Asia. The eighteenth-century Roman books nevertheless remain crucial witnesses to an earlier phase when Burmese texts could be manufactured in European printing houses before comparable facilities became established locally.

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## Bibliografia di riferimento

Catalogue of the Burmese Books in the British Museum. London, 1913, entries under “Catechism,” copies 14300.b.5, 14300.b.6 and 849.l.20. Cordier, Henri. Bibliotheca Indosinica: Dictionnaire bibliographique des ouvrages relatifs à la péninsule indochinoise. Paris:, 1912–1915, p. 287; Hosten, Henry, and G. H. Luce. Bibliotheca Catholica Birmanica. Rangoon, 1916; Bigandet, Paul Ambroise. An Outline of the History of the Catholic Mission from the Year 1720 to 1887. Rangoon, 1887. San San May. “Early Printing in Burma.” Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter, no. 42 (December 2010), pp. 32-40, especially p. 33; Amaduzzi, Giovanni Cristoforo, ed. Alphabetum Barmanum seu Bomanum regni Avae finitimarumque regionum. Rome, Typis Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1776, pp. vii-xliv, 1-51; Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Theological Works, in the Learned and Other Foreign Languages. Historical bookseller's catalogue, entry no. 1620; OCLC: 44208013; Italian Union Catalgue, IT\ICCU\TO0E\066436 (quoting a plate that is not present in any examined copy).

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