Dirk Kuhlmann and Barbara Hoster
As a tribute to the 150th anniversary of the Society of the Divine Word (Societas Verbi Divini, SVD), the Monumenta Serica Institute’s most recent monograph Bibliotheca Sinica Christiana: Annotated Catalog of Divine Word Missionaries’ (S.V.D.) Publications in Shandong (1882–1950) offers a research guide to the Society’s publishing enterprise in China. At the same time, getting this book printed also brought a project to conclusion that has taken almost a quarter of a century of joint efforts: It was pursued with great perseverance and meticulously compiled by Roman Malek SVD (1951–2019), the long-time director and editor-in-chief of the Monumenta Serica Institute, and posthumously completed by the Institute’s editorial team.
The nucleus for this catalog were the SVD publications from China held in the Sankt Michael Mission House in Steyl, which were rediscovered there in the 1970s and recorded in a list by the former China missionary and librarian Bernhard Kolanczyk SVD (1903–1983). In the 1980s, these holdings were transferred to the SVD’s Monumenta Serica Institute in Sankt Augustin and integrated as a book collection in the Institute’s library.
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