B. 1689 or 1690; A. 1707; S.O. c. 1716; L.V. 1724; D. 1743

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His curriculum

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Andre Pereira was born in Porto, from English parents, allegedly called ‘Jackson’, on 4 February 1689 or 1690. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Lisbon on 17 June or 17 July 1707. After the usual two years as a novice, he entered in 1709 the Universidade de Évora (Lus. 47, f° 129v. etc.), which comes in consideration for information on his stay there, the others being too early (1705) or too late (1717, i.e. after his departure for China). In Lus. 47 (f° 133v.), we find his name among the then ‘scholastici’, as a student of the 2nd year of his philosophical course: from this, we can induce that Pereira’s four year philosophical course spanned the period 1709-10 (1st year); 1710-11 (2nd); 1711-12 (3rd) and 1712-13 (4th year); at the end of his 4th year, he was ‘magister artium’. In 1713-1714 he studied one-year mathematics in Evora (A. Franco; BNP, Ms. 750); in 1714-1715 he was for one year in Coimbra. This Portuguese part of his career finished, when Pereira embarked in Lisbon on 14 March 1716.

Arrived in Macau in late 1716 or early 1717, he remained in the next following years in the Macau - Guangzhou area. The first four years of them (roughly between Aug. 1716 – Aug. 1719) he spent to his theological studies, followed by the ordination. Simultaneously, he will certainly have started his studies of Chinese, and received his Chinese name Xu Maode. In Aug. 1719 he made in Guangzhou a lunar eclipse observation, reported later by Maximilian Hell (cf. infra). His main activities in Guangzhou, however, were those of a common missionary; probably he was also rector of the local college (A. Viegas). It was still in Guangzhou that he was professed, more precisely on 17 June 1724. In the late summer of 1724, he arrived in Beijing. After three years, he was appointed in 1727 assessor (Chin. title: Qintianjian jianfu) of Kögler († 1746) in the Astronomical Bureau (Qintianjian); this remains his status within the Qintianjian until the end of his life. Twice he was Vice-Provincial: in 1729–1732 and 1735–1741; ‘Rector’ of the Nantang Portuguese college in an unspecified period. He died in Beijing on 2 December 1743. For his official funerals we have the eyewitness report by Johann Walter, of 2 December 1744. His tomb inscription is preserved and was published by Malatesta.

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Pereira’s scientific activities in China and in Beijing

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After the aforementioned profile, it is obvious that his scholarly activities were in the field of astronomy. It was in all probability on the basis of this (and other similar?) experiences that he was in 1724 ‘summoned’ to come to Beijing. Three years later, he was appointed Qintianjian jianfu, as direct collaborator (“assessor”) of the official ‘Head’ of the Bureau, the German Jesuit Ignatius Kögler (1680 - 1746). Central in Pereira’s ‘early’ period in Beijing was the astronomical ‘revolution’ of 1722: following Pereira’s perception, it concerns the introduction of a ‘new’ comprehensive astronomical manual, in 1722(5), titled Lixiang Kaocheng, made on the ‘command’ of the late Kangxi Emperor, intending to counter a too strong Western influence in the calculation of the year calendar: activists were one “Ho” (i.e. He Guozong), who promoted one “Mey” (i.e. Mei Juecheng, 1681 – 1763); after apparent errors, manifested during the eclipse of 15 July 1730, this work was sent back to the Jesuits of the Qintianjian for revision. Therefore, Kögler and Pereira first corrected the eclipse factor of the solar eclipse of 15 July 1730 from 8’10’’ into 9’22”, and added in 1737 two appendices to the (Yuzhi) Lixiang kaocheng, namely the tables called Ri Chan Biao and Yue Li Biao (tables, the latter derived from Nicasius Grammatici’). Between 1737 and 1742 they compiled (Yuzhi) Lixiang kaocheng houbian/“Supplement to (?) through investigation of Calendrical astronomy ‘Imperially composed’ (i.e. Yuzhi), where within the Tychonian cosmological framework – which was, despite the acquaintance with Grammatici etc. retained - several innovations were introduced, including, among others, Kepler’s equation and I. Newton’s lunar theory.

It is, after all, difficult to pinpoint precisely the contribution of A. Pereira in this mostly ‘collective’ work, publ. by the Director of the Bureau, I. Kögler. Although he was perceived as the ‘assistant’ of Kögler’s during the observations, his role was apparently not only secondary, or receptive: not only because his observation in Guangzhou in 1717, but also because it was apparently him, who suggested to Kögler to introduce the Tables of Grammatici: this, at least, is reported by A. Gaubil.

In 1727 he was also involved in another collective project, this time a cartographical one, which was ordered by the ‘13th Regulo’, in collaboration with Antoine Gaubil and Joseph De Mailla, and aiming at mapping the area between the Sahalien Oula (i.e. the Amur River), the sea of the North and that of the East. This is reported by Gaubil in his correspondence with Etienne Souciet in Paris, who already in October of 1727 mentioned also the ‘Regulo’s’ satisfaction with the result, despite his own frustrations about the low quality: these maps were, indeed, not made through measurements-in-the-field, but were derived from regional reports or descriptions (“mémoires”) and beyond any application of contemporary Western cartographical theories or practices. Anyway, also here it must be unclear which was Pereira’s contribution.

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His correspondence network with Europe:​

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These scientific activities were supported by a wide-ranging but scattered correspondence: with the Academia Imperialis, 1732-1742 (Saint Petersburg), viz. with the Portuguese physician António Nunes Ribeiro Sanches, 1736 - 1743 (ibid.); always together with Kögler (and Karl Slaviçek, S.J.) - with Theophil Siegfried Bayer (1694 – 1738 (together with I. Kögler and K. Slavicek); Joseph-Nicolas Delisle (1688 – 1768; living in Saint Petersburg between 1726 - 1747): with London (Jacob de Castro Sarmento, 1692-1762); with Lisbon; with Paris; and Rome.

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BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

 

DEHERGNE, J. (1973), 197-198; Grande Enciclopédia Portuguesa e Brasileira; MIRANDA (2000); PFISTER (1932-1934), 652-654; RODRIGUES (1925), 23-54; 83-113; SHI (2008), 36-81; SOMMERVOGEL (1890), vol. VI, col. 498; VIEGAS, A. (1920-1921), Revista de história, 9, 257–270.

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The entry, with scientific review should be cited as follows: Noël Golvers, "André Pereira (1689-1743)", in Res Sinicae, Enciclopédia de Autores, Arnaldo do Espírito Santo, Cristina Costa Gomes and Isabel Murta Pina (Coord.). ISBN: 978-972-9376-56-6.

URL: "https://www.ressinicae.letras.ulisboa.pt/andre-pereira-1689-1743?lang=en".

Last revision: 15.01.2021.

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