FENICIO, Jacobo (Jacome, Finicio). Capua c. 1558 — Cochin 1632. Father, S.J. Italian Missionary, in India 1583-1632, working in Malabar Mission, mainly in Cochin and Calicut (Kochi & Kozhikode). Around 1603/09 he wrote in Portuguese an interesting account of Indian religion, which was used as a manuscript by his successors (still by —> Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo), usually without acknowledging the source. It combines close observations of living religion with epic and Purāṇic traditions.
Publications: The Livro da Seita dos Indios Orientais (Brit. Mus. MS. Sloane 1820) of Father Jacobo Fenicio, S.J., edited with an introduction and notes by J. Charpentier. 104+252 p. Paris – Cambridge – Uppsala – Leipzig – Haag 1933 (omitting the theological sections as “lacking in interest”).
Sources: Charpentier’s introduction; Tucci 2005, 139f.
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