Note 7 — Relation of 1627–28

Nicholas Longobardi was born in 1566 at Caltagarone, Sicily, and admitted into the Society in 1580 (Sotwell says that he entered his novitiate in 1582, at the age of seventeen). He became a teacher in humanities and rhetoric. In 1596 he went to China, and settled in the province of Kiang-si, where he was appointed general superior of the mission from 1610 to 1622. He died at Peking, December 11, 1655, according to Sotwell. Father de Machault says that he died September 1, 1654, according to a letter written May 7, 1655, by Father Francois Clement; but the inscription on his tomb gives the first date. He had written a number of treatises, some of them apparently in the Chinese language. See Sommervogel’s Bibliothèque.