Capuchin Missionary at the Mission Station, Sogno, Kingdom of Kongo, 1740s

The compound of the Capuchin mission station and portion of adjacent African settlement; missionary is instructing a small group of Africans. Caption notes this is the hospice of Sonho in the Congo, the first mission station established by the Italian Capuchins in this region; also noted is that the station is about 4 leagues from the Zaire river and that 24 missionaries had already died in the excercise of their mission. This source in Italian is a modern printing of a 1747 manuscript (located in the Biblioteca Civica of Turin) which describes Capuchin expeditions to the Kingdom of Kongo. The watercolor paintings record moments in the daily lives of missionaries Bernardino Ignazio and Gaspare da Bassano, who were resident in Sogno from 1743-1747. Sogno (Sonyo in English) was a province of the kingdom. The illustrations and accompanying manuscript were done by Ignazio. (Thanks to James Sweet for assistance in interpreting the source.)

Image Title

Capuchin Missionary at the Mission Station, Sogno, Kingdom of Kongo, 1740s

RegID

SI-OB-680

Date

1740-1750

Title

Capuchin Missionary at the Mission Station, Sogno, Kingdom of Kongo, 1740s

Source

Paola Collo and Silvia Benso (eds.), Sogno: Bamba, Pemba, Ovando e altre contrade dei regni di Congo, Angola e adjacenti (Milan: published privately by Franco Maria Ricci, 1986), p. 65.

Language

Italian

Item sets

Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture

Spatial Coverage

Africa--West Central North

Reproduced In

Paola Collo and Silvia Benso (eds.), Sogno: Bamba, Pemba, Ovando e altre contrade dei regni di Congo, Angola e adjacenti (Milan: published privately by Franco Maria Ricci, 1986), p. 65.

Researchers

Handler, Jerome; Tuite, Michael; Randall Ericson; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May

Identifier

sogno65