12 Facts About Ippolito Desideri

Ippolito Desideri was an Italian Jesuit missionary and traveller and the most famous of the early European missionaries to visit Tibet.

Ippolito Desideri was the first documented European to have successfully studied and understood Tibetan language and culture.

Ippolito Desideri was educated from childhood in the Jesuit school in Pistoia, and in 1700 was selected to attend the Collegio Romano in Rome.

Ippolito Desideri was the only European missionary in Tibet, at that time.

Ippolito Desideri learned the language and became a voracious student of the culture.

Ippolito Desideri contested the charge of disobedience to the Propaganda Fide, and both sides complained to Rome.

At Agra, Ippolito Desideri was appointed head pastor of the Catholic community in the Mughal capital of Delhi.

Ippolito Desideri organized education and services for the community, and had a new church built to replace the former dilapidated edifice.

Ippolito Desideri took along his very extensive notes on Tibet, its culture and religion, and began work on his Relation, which in its latest manuscript was called "Historical Notices of Tibet" while still homeward bound on a French vessel.

Ippolito Desideri took up residence in the Jesuit professed house, and his time was fully occupied in the legal proceedings at the Propaganda Fide between himself, representing the Jesuit order, and Fr.

Felice di Montecchio, who fiercely prosecuted the Capuchin case; Ippolito Desideri wrote three Defenses of the Jesuit position.

Ippolito Desideri had been working during this time on revising the Relation and was preparing it for publication, which was forbidden by the Propaganda order.