CLEMENS A IESU (Clemente di Gesù, lay Giovanni Jacobo Peano di Penni, often called with hybrid name Clemente Peani or Clemens Peanus). Alessandria 7.4.1731 — Mattancherry 19.10.1782. Father. Italian Missionary and Precursor of Indology. A Discalced Carmelite monk. He joined the order in 1749, studied six years at missionary seminary in Rome and was sent to Malabar Mission in 1756. Worked in the Verapoly Mission in Cochin, Kerala. In 1768 he visited Rome in order to supervise the printing of his Sanshepan Vedartham (Malayālam Catechism). On return in 1774 he was appointed General Vicar of his bishop.

Publications: Anonymously published (edited by J. C. Amadutius) Alphabetum Grandonico-Malabaricum seu samscrudonicum. 28 (Introduction by Amadutius) + 100 p. R. 1772.

– Saṁkṣepavedārtham. A Christian catechism published in Rome 1772 as the very first book printed in Malayālam characters.

– Grammatica Latino-Malabarica. Written 1772, manuscript lost.

Sources: Thankappan Nair 1973, 130; https://camminoteresiano.wordpress.com/category/congregazione-ditalia-dellordine-dei-carmelitani-scalzi/provincia-di-san-maurizio-di-piemonte-della-congregazione-ditalia-dellordine-dei-carmelitani-scalzi/clemente-di-gesu-clemens-a-iesu/ referring to *Analecta Ordinis Carmelitarum Discalceatorum 17-18, 1942, 109.