Annotations in Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum, ac Iaponicum(1595) in the Context of Latin Education by the Jesuits in Japan

要旨

The Jesuits in Japan began establishing schools in the 1580s to mentor young native men in priesthood. In 1594, their students received a printed abridged edition of the Latin grammar, originally written by Manuel Alvarez, and the next year they received Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum, ac Iaponicum (DLLI), a LatinPortuguese-Japanese dictionary based on the Latin dictionary compiled by Ambrogio Calepino. One of the features, when comparing the DLLI with the original, is that it cites the names of Latin classical writers without quoting sentences in several entries. This paper attempts to clarify the reasons for these annotations in this edition and reflects on the purpose of the DLLI. Plautus is cited in about 70 entries, the most citations among all the names found in the DLLI. However, this number does not reflect the number in the original, which includes many classical writers, especially Cicero, whose works were regarded as a model for Latin prose. We also have no evidence showing that Jesuits in Japan regarded Plautus’s writing as more important than Cicero’s in teaching Latin. The editors of the DLLI cite Vergilius most frequently after Plautus; we also find many annotations from the original showing the differences in usages such as ‘apud veteres’ (used by ancient people) or ‘apud poetas’ (used by poets). Similarly, it is reasonable to suppose that the editors included notes on ‘Plaut’ to describe the differences in older usages. They appear to retain the citations of writers and other annotations on special usages in order to teach the various nuances of Latin vocabulary to students in Japan, many of whom had elementary or intermediate language skills and needed good Latin proficiency to work as priests. 1. Dictionarium Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum, ac Iaponicum (DLLI) is a Latin-Portuguese-Japanese dictionary printed in 1595 by the Jesuits in Japan. Its lengthy title and preface indicate that the DLLI is clearly based on the dictionary compiled by Ambrogio Calepino, but it omits the entries for proper nouns and unusual words and includes all meanings of words along with elegant examples of usage, so that it may serve as a guide for young Japanese people studying the Latin language and for Europeans who wished to study Japanese further. Historical background according to Laures (1957), tells us that the Jesuits printed the DLLI mainly for students studying Latin at their schools, which they established for the purpose of mentoring young native men into priesthood. Ambrogio Calepino’s Latin dictionary—the so-called Calepinus—has often been referenced but not studied much, except for the bibliography of Labarre (1975), and in those days Calepinus seemed to be used less for missionary works in non-European areas other than Japan, which may indicate a high standard of Latin education in Japan. Kishimoto (2005) has recently begun detailed comparative studies between the original European Calepinus and the DLLI. One notable feature is that the DLLI cites the names of Latin classic writers without quoting sentences in several entries spread throughout the dictionary. This paper attempts to clarify the reasons for these annotations in this edition and to reflect on the purpose of the DLLI, which differs considerably from the original European edition.

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