Portuguese source of Chinese-Spanish lexicography

Abstract The similarities between an anonymous Chinese-Spanish manuscript dictionary Thesaurus rarissimus (Ms Marsh 111) kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford and an anonymous Chinese-Portuguese manuscript dictionary in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI, Jap. Sin. IV, 7) suggest that certain early Chinese-Spanish dictionaries were derived from Chinese-Portuguese lexicography. This study also helps explain the presence of Portuguese traces in a number of early Chinese-Spanish dictionaries.