Jean-Louis Taberd (1794–1840)[1] was a French missionary of theParis Foreign Missions Society,apostolic vicar ofCochinchina, and titular bishop ofIsauropolis,in partibus infidelium.[2] He edited and published theDictionarium Anamitico-Latinum, building upon earlier efforts byPierre Pigneau de Béhaine and Vietnamese Catholics.
Born inSaint-Étienne, Jean-Louis Taberd was ordained priest inLyon in 1817. He joined the Paris Foreign Missions Society in 1820, and was appointed to become a missionary inCochinchina,[a] modernVietnam. In 1827 he was appointedVicar Apostolic of Cochinchina, and Bishop of thetitular see of Isauropolis in 1830.[1][2] With the persecutions of the Emperor of VietnamMinh Mạng, Mgr Taberd was forced to escape the country.
Jean-Louis Taberd first went toPenang and thenCalcutta, where, with the help ofLord Auckland and theAsiatic Society he was able to publish his own Latin-Vietnamese dictionary in 1838.[2] He improved upon the previous works ofAlexandre de Rhodes andPigneau de Béhaine, whose 1773 Vietnamese-Latin dictionary he had been handed in manuscript form.[4] He also published Pigneau's dictionary in 1838 under the nameDictionarium Anamitico-Latinum.
In his workThe Geography of Cochin China, Taberd reports theParacel Islands (today a hotly disputed island territory in Southeast Asia) as having been conquered and claimed by EmperorGia Long in 1816.[5]
In the late 19th century, the renowned CatholicInstitution Taberd (vi) was founded inSaigon by theBrothers of the Christian Schools and, since 1943, to educate a Vietnamese elite.[6][7]
