Between Aemulatio and Improvement

Du Halde’s Description de la Chine, a comprehensive work which presents Jesuit knowledge about China in an encyclopedic manner, was translated already soon after its first publication in Paris into English and German. A close comparison shows that the translators, far from merely confining themselves to rendering the original in another language, critically discussed its contents, made corrections, additions and shortenings, orienting the text to the readers they wanted to address.