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Michal Boym

Description of Mozambique

The manuscript presented below is kept at Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu in Rome, under the signature Goa 34-I, ff. 150-160. It is titled Cafraria, a P.M. Boym Polono Missa Mozambico 1644 Januario 11.

Michal Boym (1612 or 1614 - 1659) was a Polish missionary, Jesuit. During his journey to China he visited a coast of Mozambique (1644), in his days called Cafraria. His description of two Portuguese factories -- Sena on Zambezi river and Mozambique Island -- is one of the most interesting and oldest Polish accounts of Africa. It is illustrated with five water-colours and two linedraws by his own. The manuscript titled "Cafraria, a P.M. Boym Polono Missa Mozambico 1644 Januario 11" is kept at the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu in Rome under the signature Goa 34-I, ff. 150-160. The text has never been scholarly edited.

Contents

• biographical note
• scanned manuscript images
• transcription of Latin text of manuscript
• Polish translation (ISO Latin 2 encoding)
• English translation
• Copyright Notice

Portuguese translation will be available soon.

Links to related web pages

• Vatican exhibit: Rome to China
• Jesuit Resources -- History
• The Latin Library
• Lycos search on Mozambique

List of contributors:

Bertrand Barrois

English translation of Latin text.

John Donahue

English translation of Latin text.

Agnieszka Guzek

Polish translation of Latin text.

Konrad M. Kokoszkiewicz

Deciphering of Latin manuscript.

Francisco Loaiza

English translation of Latin text.

Eugeniusz Rzewuski

Spiritus movens of the project; acquiring the photocopy of the manuscript from Archivum Romanum and scanning it.

Anna Zalewska

Preparing the WWW pages.

Cezary Zemis

Preparing the WWW pages, computer processing of graphic and biographical note.

Please contact us at boym@orient.uw.edu.pl.

Copyright by Anna Zalewska & Cezary Zemis.

Last modified: 1996-10-01

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