Frontispiece to Athanasius Kircher's China Illustrata (1667), depicting Jesuit missionaries Johann Adam Schall von Bell (left) and Matteo Ricci (right), and in the upper part Society of Jesus founders Francis Xavier (left) and Ignatius of Loyola (right).
Featured on PDR in the essay Voltaire and the Buddha
Donald S. Lopez, Jr. looks at Voltaire's early reflections on Buddhism and how, in his desire to separate the Buddha's teachings from the trappings of religion, the French Enlightenment thinker prefigured an approach now familiar in the West.
Also appearing in the essay…
Other works by the artist in the archive…
Frontispiece to Athanasius Kircher's China Illustrata
Artist
Date
1667
From
China Illustrata
