TIEFFENTALLER, JOSEPH

Jesuit missionary and noted geographer in Hindustan; b. Salurn (Bolzano, Italy), April 27, 1710; d. Lucknow, July 5, 1785. He entered the Society Oct. 9, 1729, and in 1743 went to the East Indian mission, where he held various positions, particularly within the Empire of the Great Mogul. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus (1773), he remained in India and was the main support of the mission. He was a fine scholar with an unusual talent for languages. He was the first European to write an exact description of Hindustan, and is the author of numerous studies on Hinduism, astronomy, natural sciences, and history. Tieffentaller sent his works in manuscript partly to the Danish scholar Dr. Kratzenstein at Copenhagen, and partly to the celebrated geographer A. H. Anquetil-Duperron. The latter gave due credit to the value and importance of the works and made them in part accessible to the learned world in his Recherches hist. et géogr. sur l'Inde (1786) and also in his Carte

générale du cours du Gange et du Gogra dressée par les cartes particulières du P. T. (Paris 1884). A part of the manuscripts at Copenhagen were obtained by Johann Bernoulli of Berlin who used them in connection with the Recherches of Anquetil in the great work: Des P. J. Tieffentallers der Gesellschaft Jesu und Apostol. Missionarius in Indien historisch-geographische Beschreibung von Hindustan (3 v. Berlin 1785–87), French edition Description hist. et géorgr. de l'Inde (Berlin 1786–91).

Bibliography: r. streit and j. dindinger, Bibliotheca missionum 6:140–142. c. sommervogel, Bibliotèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, 11 v. (Brussels-Paris 1890–1932) 8:21–24.

[j. wicki]