Catholic Orientalism

Through a series of case studies, this book chronicles the rise and the decline of Catholic Orientalism which was produced in and disseminated by global networks of the early modern Portuguese empire in South Asia. From Portuguese officials to Goan Brahman clerics and literati, from botanists and physicians of Jewish origin to Italian Jesuits and their Tamil catechists, they were all engaged in creating an ever more cosmopolitan world of early modern South Asia. They did that by way of collecting information and knowledge, and by reflecting on their own mixed identities, on the world of South Asia and their place in it.