About the book

Baron Ferdinand Avguštin Hallerstein (1703-1774). A Jesuit, mathematician, astronomer, cartographer, diplomat. From 1739 onward, he was a missionary in China, the Vice-provincial and Visitor for the Chinese Jesuit province and the Provincial and Visitor of the Japanese Jesuit province, the president of the imperial astronomical bureau in Beijing, a third-rank mandarin. His letters have been published and commented on in London, Sankt Petersburg, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig and Vienna. He has drawn maps of parts of the Chinese empire and announced the most accurate estimation of the Chinese population to this day. He observed the northern lights, comets, eclipses, and planet and satellite movements. Meet this great man through the writings of 13 scientists.