Fw: H-ASIA: India Orientalis (was Seeking Latin-English translation)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Conlon" <conlon@U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2011 1:06 AM
Subject: H-ASIA: India Orientalis (was Seeking Latin-English translation)

> H-ASIA
> November 4, 2011
>
> "India Orientalis" (Was Seeking Latin-English translation)
> *****************************************************************
> From: R. Stevenson Upton <R.Stevenson.Upton.77@Alum.Dartmouth.ORG>
>
> Further to the discussions of the translation of the
> 1795 Copenhagen publication:
>
> I've been very interested indeed to read the comments by
> Professors Kochhar and Tsai regarding how India
> Orientalis, as used by Dr. Klein in the 1795, should be
> translated. I certainly haven't been certain of the
> correct translation, and I remain uncertain.
>
> It appears to me that India Orientalis over the centuries
> has been a somewhat flexible term with no universally
> agreed-upon meaning -- it has meant different things to
> different people at different times, as have such terms
> as "Near East" and "Central Asia." It appears to me that
> over the centuries, cartographers have often used "India
> Orientalis" in reference to some or all of Southeast Asia,
> or to a region encompassing the Indian peninsula as well
> as most or all of Southeast Asia. But botanists have
> sometimes used the "India Orientalis" to refer
> specifically to only the Indian Peninsula, or to only some
> eastern part of the Indian peninsula which might or might
> not be the same as what Professor Kochhar thinks of
> as "East India."
>
> The botanist Robert Wight, writing in the mid-nineteenth
> century, used the term "India Orientalis" in the titles of
> books which were specifically about plants of the Indian
> peninsula. One such book by Wight is "Icones Plantarum
> Indiae Orientalis, or Figures of Indian Plants," published
> at Madras in 1850. Another book by Wight is "Prodromus
> florae peninsulae: India Orientalis, containing abridged
> descriptions of the plants found in the peninsula of
> British India." The botanist William Barwell Turner wrote
> the book "Algae aquae dulcis, Indiae Orientalis = The
> fresh-water algae (principally Desmidiae) of east India,"
> published at Stockholm in 1892. I've just quickly looked
> through Turner's book on the internet and satisfied myself
> that India Orientalis / east India, as used by Turner,
> meant some not-clearly-delineated eastern part of the
> Indian peninsula.
>
> I obviously haven't succeeded in figuring out exactly what
> Dr. Klein meant when he used the term India Orientalis. As
> Professor Tsai surmised, I speculated that Klein was
> probably referring to eastern India because Klein was
> living in southeastern India. But if anyone actually digs
> out and plows through Klein's 1795 thesis in Latin, that
> person probably will be able to enlighten us regarding
> what Dr. Klein meant.
>
> Best regards to all,
>
> Steve Upton/ILEAD,
> rsu77@alum.dartmouth.org
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