Discovering Korea through Iberian Writings of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

This article analyzes ethnographic information about the Korean peninsula that can be found in texts produced by Iberian missionaries during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Although Korea did not generate the same degree of interest as neighboring countries such as China and Japan in which Catholic missions had been established, members of religious orders were nevertheless able to acquire a remarkable knowledge of the topography, the climate, and the social and political system of the country. These ethnographic references have great relevance for the history of cultural interchange between Korea and Europe, since they were the basis on which European readers formed their initial image of Korea and its people.