GIULIO

ALENIO (1582-1649)  , Italian Jesuit missionary, was born at Brescia . He entered the Society of Jesus and was sent to the East . He landed at Macao in 161o, and while waiting a favourable opportunity to penetrate into China busied himself for three years in teaching mathematics . His thirty years' residence in China was marked by unceasing zeal and considerable success . He adopted the dress and manners of the country, was the first Christian missionary in Kiang-si, and built several churches in Fo-Kien . He wrote in Chinese a Life of Christ (Pekin, 1635-1637, 8 vols.; often reprinted, e.g. in 1887 in 3 vols., and used even by Protestant missionaries) and a cosmography (Iche fang wai ki Hang-chow, 1623, 6 vols.), which was translated into Manchu under the title The True Origin of 10,000 Things, a copy of which was sent from Pekin to Paris in 1789 . Alenio died at Fu-chow in 1649 . For bibliography see de Backer and Sommervogel, Bibl.de la Cie. de Jesus, i . 158-160 .