author
a S. Bartholomaeo Paulinus
1748–1806
An Austrian Carmelite missionary who spent years in India, he became one of the first Europeans to study Sanskrit seriously and write about Indian languages and culture for Western readers.
1 Audiobook
Voyage to the East Indies
by a S. Bartholomaeo Paulinus
About the author
Born Johann Philipp Wesdin in Lower Austria in 1748, he entered the Carmelite order and took the name Paulinus of St. Bartholomew. He was sent to the Malabar Coast in India as a missionary in the 1770s, and his long stay there shaped the work he is remembered for today.
Paulinus wrote on Indian religion, language, and customs, and he is especially noted for producing an early European grammar of Sanskrit. His books helped introduce South Asian scholarship to readers in Europe and made him an important early Orientalist, even if some of his conclusions naturally reflect the limits of his time.
He later returned to Rome, where he continued scholarly and editorial work until his death in 1806. He is also known in older catalogs and title pages as Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo or similar Latinized forms of his religious name.