Re: doaro

["Gabriel Landini" <G.Landini@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 18 Jan 00, at 14:10, Jorge Stolfi wrote:

> "doaro" is to be read "subaru", which is the name of the Pleiades in
> Japanese.

> Actually, we both may be right. The spelling "abiril" for April is
> strong evidence that the author was Japanese (note the extra "i") and
> learned the Western month names in Portugal or Spain (thus "b" instead
> of "p").

It could be :-)

> BTW, that pretty much identifies the author as one of the three
> Japanese converts who toured Europe (chiefly Lisbon and Rome) from
> 1582 to 1590. Presumably the pilgrims left the VMS at Rome,

Hm... I thought that the author was Francis Xavier who when to 
Kagoshima (where I lived) in 1549. 
He died in China, so his vms must have been carried back to 
Europe by somebody else. This should narrow down the language 
to Mandarin, Cantonese or Japanese.

Seriously, if you read the following article, it says that he was 
involved with translations (most likely for religious purposes), 
perhaps translating Spanish/Latin into Japanese?

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06233b.htm

Cheers,

Gabriel