Ippolito Desideri (1684–1733)

Ippolito Desideri (1684–1733) was “an Italian Jesuit missionary in Tibet and the first European to have successfully studied and understood Tibetan language and culture” (Wikipedia, s.v.). “Not only did Desideri contribute to the Orientalist vogue in Europe, the simultaneous demonization and idealization (but always exotification) of Asia, but also laid the grounds for much modern scholarship. His account of Tibet is heralded by Tibetologists as the beginning of their field” (a review of Pomplun 2010).