Prospero Intorcetta’s Compendiosa narratione (1672) and the Jesuit correspondence from China

The experience of Prospero Intorcetta, SJ (1625-96), in the biennium 1671-72, after having been appointed in Canton as Sinicae missionis procurator in 1666, then sent for a crucial mission to Rome, stands in the middle of his biography, just divided into a first decade in Asia, from 1659 to 1669, and the second part of his apostolate in China covering over twenty years, from his return in 1674 until his death in Hangzhou. 1 The specific case I am focusing on here can be of interest with regard to sources of the Jesuit correspondence from China, involving both the Jesuits engaged in Peking or Canton and the European readers variously interested in learning about the Chinese world and grasping at recent news on the progress of evangelization in China