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Michał Piotr Boym (1612 (1) -1659), a Jesuit, missionary and scholar, came from a family in which noble and bourgeois, scientific and mercantile, travel and religious traditions curiously intertwined. The Boym family (2) came to Poland from Hungary with the King Stephen Bathory. The Jesuit's grandfather, Jerzy Boym, even held the title of royal secretary. The Boym family amassed a considerable fortune and was considered to be a part of the Lvov patriciate. The family's position was strengthened by Paweł Jerzy Boym, the missionary's father, town councillor and mayor, as well as a merchant maintaining contact with France and Italy, Doctor of Philosophy and Medical Sciences of the University of Padua, honoured with title of court doctor to the Polish King Sigismund III Vasa.
Paweł Boym's offspring was numerous—six sons and one daughter. Michał Piotr was the third son in a row. His upbringing and personality were definitely influenced by the Renaissance spirit present in the family. Innate predispositions for natural sciences and mathematics pointed him to medicine and pharmacy, which in the future had no small influence on his undertaking of missionary work in the Far East. The interests of his youthful years were further developed through thorough education received at Jesuit schools of all levels.
In 1629, (3) the seventeen-year-old Michał Piotr Boym joined the Society of Jesus and was accepted to the noviciate house by the St. Szczepan and Maciej's Church in Cracow. In this period, as practical preparation for his missionary work, he helped prisoners and the sick at hospitals as well as provided religious education to children. Following his first religious vows, Boym embarked on a pedagogic course in Sandomierz. He spent the next three years on studying philosophy in Kalisz. For a year he held grammar classes and as of 1638, he was an unenrolled student of theology at a Cracow college by the St. Peter and Paul's Church. This was a place pervaded with missionary atmosphere, if only due to the presence of other religious, who later on would be conducting evangelising activities in the Far East: Wojciech Męciński
(1598-1643), missionary-martyr in Japan, or Andrzej Rudomin (1596-1631), who died on a mission in China. Polish Jesuits indirectly learned about events in China through reports and correspondence which systematically flowed in from other missionary posts operating in the Far East. These accounts had such strong influence on young religious that solely in the period of 1627-1723 as many as 114 Polish Jesuits applied for overseas missions, and most of them asked to be sent to China, Japan and India. (4)
Michał Boym also decided to go on a mission to the Middle Kingdom. He was very determined to do so, which can be proven by the fact that although his applications were turned down nine times, Boym did not give up. (5) Finally, his trip was approved by Father Provincial
Marcin Hińcza
(1592-1668) on November 27th 1641. Ordained priest in 1641, and after his third probation period in Jarosław and the benediction in Rome by Pope Urban VIII (1568-1644), the Polish missionary travelled to Lisbon, from where on March 30th 1643, he sailed to Macau.
On the Way from Europe to China
Depending on weather conditions, the sea trip to the Far East took from a few to over a dozen months, in conditions often difficult or even tragic. It usually started it Lisbon, the European portal to the Far East. From Lisbon, the sailing route led along the shores of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope to Mozambique and Goa in India. Here, before continuing their journey, missionaries had the opportunity to rest from the hardships of sailing and prepare for missionary work.
During the first stage of his sea trip, Michał Boym visited Madera, Cape Verde Islands and the region of the mouth of the Zambezi River. A few months later he reached Mozambique, where he was forced to spend the winter. Taking advantage of the situation, he conducted more detailed research of the Black Continent, which resulted in the creation of a piece entitled Cafraria . (6) Apart from geographic, ethnographic and economic descriptions, it included botanic and zoological data, as well as information from the realm of medicine and pharmacy.
Following his departure from Mozambique, the Polish Jesuit came to Goa. He remained there for a short time, before continuing his journey to the Middle Kingdom. When attempting to specify exact dates of Boym's Far Eastern travels, his biographers are usually in disagreement when it comes to details, specific days and even years of the Polish missionary's stay at successive missionary posts. It seems that Boym's most credible travel calendar in South Eastern Asia was recreated by Edward Malatesta on the basis of documents stored in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu. (7) In his opinion, Michał Boym arrived in Macau at the end of 1644. There he studied the language and delivered lectures at the Jesuit college. He had to wait as long as until January 1647, (8) when he was sent to work at a new missionary post in Tingan, deep within the island of Hainan, where he remained until November 1 of that year.
The Polish missionary devoted his time spent on Hainan to intensive scientific research. There, he started work on his atlas of China—Magni Cathay..., (9) made preparations to create a work on diagnosing patients from their pulse—Clavis Medica ad Chinarum Doctrinam de Pulsibus, (10) and also collected the bulk of materials to his Flora Sinensis, (11) the only work published during the lifetime of the Polish Jesuit.
Boym left Hainan on November 1st 1647, fleeing to Tonkin from growing civil war unrest. Following a dramatic journey on a small junk, he reached his destination as late as December 24th of that year. In Tonkin, Boym performed missionary services for some time; however scientific curiosity drove him to continue his journey. Therefore, in 1648, he set off for the former capital of China (12)—the city of Chang'an (present day Xi'an) in the Singanfu province...
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1. Michał Boym's biographers are not in agreement on the issue of
his date of birth. Traditionally, the year of 1612 is accepted here
(cf. among others C. Sommervogel SI, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie
de Jésus, Bruxelles—Paris 1890-1932, Vol. II, Col. 67-73; R. Chabrié,
Michel Boym: Jésuite Polonais et la fin des Ming en Chine (1646-1662).
Contribution à l'histoire des Missions d'Extrême Orient, Paris 1933; L.
Pfister S.I, “ Notices Biographiques et Bibliographiques sur les Jésuites de
l'Ancienne Mission de Chine , 1552-1773”, Variétés Sinologiques, Vol.
59, Shanghai, 1932, pp. 269-275; K. Estreicher, Boym Michał Piotr,
[in:] Bibliografia Polska, Kraków, Vol. XIII, 1894, pp. 303-304). Of
a different opinion is S. Załęski who indicated 1614 as the year of
Michał Boym's birth (cf. S. Załęski, Jezuici w Polsce, Kraków, 1905, t.
II, Vol. 5, p. 592).
2. An interesting list of different forms of written representation of the
Boym family name was presented by B. Szczęśniak in his article
entitled “Note on the spelling of the family name of Michael Boym
(1612-1659), missionary in China”, Rocznik Orientalistyczny, Vol.
15, Warszawa, 1949, pp. 235-238. There, he presents nine different
variants of written representation of the family name, which Michał
Boym used in private correspondence and published works.
3. S. Załęski indicates August 16th 1631, as Boym's noviciate entry
date. Cf. S. Załęski, op. cit., p. 592.
4. J. Tazbir, Rzeczpospolita szlachecka wobec wielkich odkryć, Warsaw
1973, p. 119.
5. Boym's letters in which he requests to be sent to missions in China
can be found in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), Pol.
79 ad Indiam Petentes 1627-1724, ff. 7-18v.
6. Cafraria, a P. M. Boym Polono missa Mozambico 1644 Januario 11°,
ARSI, sygn. Goa 34, ff. 150r-159r.
7. Cf. E. Malatesta, “The tragedy of Michael Boym”, Actes du VIe
Colloque International de Sinologie de Chantilly 11-14 septembre 1989,
Taipei-Paris, 1995, pp. 355, 356.
8. Antonio Francesco Cardim, Jesuit working in the Japanese Province
at the same time as Boym, states that the Polish Jesuit was sent
to Hainan in 1646, in order to help Father Bento de Mattos with
missionary work. Cf. A.F. Cardim, Batalhas da Companhia de Jesus na
Sua Gloriosa Provincia do Japao delo Padre Antonio Francisco Cardim de
Mesma Companhia de Jesus, Natural de Vianna do Alemtejo, L. Cordeiro
ed. , Lisboa, 1894, p. 247.
9. Magni Cathay Quod olim Serica, et modo Sinarum est Monarchia.
Quindecim Regnorum. Octodecim Geographicae Tabulae , Bibliotheca
Vaticana, Roma, Fondo. Borg. Cinese, sygn. 531.
10. Clavis Medica ad Chinarum Doctrinam De Pulsibus, Auctore R. P. Michaele
Boymo, è Soc. Jesu, & in China Missionario. Huius operis ultra viginti
annos jam sepulti fragmenta, hinc inde dispersa, collegit, & in gratiam
Medicae Facultatis in lucem Europaeam produxit Cl. Dn. Andreas Cleyerus,
M.D. & Societatis Batavo-Orientalis Proto-Medicus. A quo nunc demum
mittitur totius operis exemplar, è China recens allatum, & à mendis
purgatum, Procuratore R.P. Philippo Copletio, Belgâ, è Soc. Jesu, Chinensis
missionis Romam misso. Anno MDCLXXXVI., in-4°, 114 pp.
11. Flora Sinensis, fructus floresque humillime porrigens, Serenissimo et
Potentissimo Principi, ac Domino, Domino Leopoldo Ignatio, Hungariae
Regi Florentissimo, etc. Fructus Saeculo promittenti Augustissimos, emissa
in publicum a R. P. Michaele Boym, Societatis Iesu Sacerdote et a Domo
Professa eiusdem Societatis Viennae Maiestati Suae una cum felicissimi
Anni apprecatione oblata. Anno salutis MDCLVI Viennae, Austriae, Typis
Matthaei Rictii. This was the only edition of this work.
12. Duc Ha Nguyen questions the possibility of Boym undertaking a
long journey to the northern Chinese provinces at such a dangerous
time. He suspects that the Polish Jesuit remained in Tonkin until he
was appointed to the Imperial court in 1649, and that he prepared
his study on Xi'an stone tablet inscriptions using ink copies supplied
to him by other missionaries. Cf. Duc Ha Nguyen, “Okoliczno ci
pobytów Michała Boyma w Tonkinie (północnym Wietnamie) w XVII
wieku”, Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce , XLIV, 2000, p. 154.
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Monika Miazek has obtained her PhD at the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan and is specializing in Polish and Classical Philology. She is assistant professor at the Collegium Europaeum Gnesnense and author of academic publications. Her recent works focus on Michal Boym such as : Flora Sinensis Michala Boyma SI , Gniezno , 2005, or academic essays such as: Studia Boymiana , red. Aleksander W. Mikołajczak, Monika Miazek, Gniezno 2004, 207 p.; Europejczyk w Państwe środka—Jezuici, nauka, akomodacja (An European in the Middle Kingdom—Jesuits, science and accommodation) in Kulturowe konteksty integracji europejskiej, Gniezno, 2004, pp. 107-115. She is cooperating with the MRI on a common project: the Latin-English annotated edition of the Acta Pekinensia (for more information on the project, please see www.riccimac.org/eng/acta/index.htm). |
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