Book Reviews /Mission Studies 27 (2010) 235-282 249 A Bridge Across Two Cultures: Ippolito Desideri S.J. (1684-1733), a Brief Biography. By Enzo Gualtiero Bargiacchi. Translated from an unpublished Italian text by Ailsa Wood. Istituto Geografico Militare, Florence, Italy 2008. Pp. 62. No price given. Due to its particular geography and long isolation, Tibet has been considered an impene- trable and mysterious realm. Nonetheless, its history has been closely linked to its Asian neighbors and it gradually became, during the Western domination of the region, the target of European commercial, political, or Christian missions. The latter include Jesuit mission- aries since 1624, when the Portuguese priest Antonio d'Andrade (1580-1634) arrived in Western Tibet. D'Andrade, considered the first European to have crossed the Himalayas, also founded a small mission which dissolved in 1640 due to a local war. Enzo Gualtiero Bargiacchi has already contributed to scholarship on European mission- aries in the East, especially on Ippolito Desideri, in works including Ippolito Desideri S.J. alla scoperta del Tibet e del buddhismo (2006) and Ippolito Desideri S.J. Opere e bibliogra- fia (2007). In this short volume he offers a new contribution for English-speakers. The text contains an accessible brief biography of Desideri (1684-1733) that recreates his historical context, which is interesting both for its specifics and from the point of view of the dialogue between religions and cultures. The main strength of this work lies in its reliance on pri- mary sources to produce an intellectual and religious portrait of the Tuscan hero, as well as the historical background of his missionary activity. That background included the sensitive issue of the relations between Capuchins and Jesuits, something Bargiacchi often focuses on, enabling us to understand the human and spiritual adventure of Desideri. Desideri joined the Jesuits in 1700, eventually studying at the prestigious Roman Col- lege. Thanks to his philosophical abilities, moral qualities, and eagerness to redeem his fel- low human beings, he was chosen by the Jesuit General Tamburini for Tibet. By then, the Jesuits had long carried out important missions in the East, missions appreciated by local peoples due to their respect for native cultures and customs. Though previous attempts in Tibet had failed, written accounts of the place from luminaries like Francis Xavier, Matteo Ricci, and Daniel Bartoli made quite an impression on young Desideri. In 1702, he left Rome for the remote Asian destination via Lisbon, where Jesuit missionaries received the formal patronage of the King of Portugal. After an adventurous journey along the African coasts, crossing India and the Himalayas, then enduring the wilderness of western Tibet, Desideri reached Lhasa in 1716 accompanied by the Portuguese Jesuit Freyre. Welcomed favorably by local civil and religious authorities, he was able to freely express his religious ideas and practices. The Tibetans did not agree with the exclusiveness of Christian redemp- tion, keeping their belief that each human is saved through his or her own tradition. He learned the Tibetan language very well - after familiarizing himself with Persian during his voyage - and scrupulously studied Buddhist doctrines, which he described and discussed in five books written in Tibetan. His work, however, was abruptly interrupted when his supe- riors asked him to leave Lhasa because Propaganda Fide had handed over the the Tibetan mission to the rival Capuchins. After five years in Tibet, Desideri, saddened, left the "roof of the world" at the end of 1721. Yet due to various difficulties, he ended up in Agra, where he met his fellow Jesuits, eventually ending up at the French mission in Pondicherry. After another five years in India, © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/157338310X537482