(Bell, Johann Adam Schall von)

Woodblock printed book on native paper, Chinese text, 11 leaves (average 262 x 324mm.), disbound with each leaf housed in modern card folder, small loss affecting only a few characters, minor tears and repairs

All Under Heaven 25

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A DEFENCE OF WESTERN CALENDRICAL ASTRONOMY. The characters of the text are carved in the "craftsman's style" (jiangti) of calligraphy that became standard in Chinese books after the middle of the sixteenth century and that was the forerunner of modern China's predominant typeface. "This book is a defence of Western calendrical astronomy written in Chinese by Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592-1666), a German Jesuit missionary who lived the greater part of his life in China. He was a gifted mathematician and astronomer employed in the imperial Bureau of Astronomy, where he translated and composed texts on astronomy, constructed astronomical instruments, helped revise the imperial calendar. Schall first published the work as a chapter in Treatise on Calendrical Astronomy on the Chongzhen Reign, submitted to the emperor in 1635. The text addresses objections that conservative supporters of the old calendar had raised, articulating the differences between the methodologies of the new and old calendars and responding to six questions about the new methodology. Schall von Bell explains, for instance, why the new approach transposes two of the twenty-eight lunar mansions of the Chinese constallations and why it divides the day into ninety-six fifteen-minute sections (ke) instead of one hundred" (All Under Heaven). Schall was later discredited by Christian missionaries of other orders and Chinese elites, and died in disgrace in 1666.