The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch will host a lecture by its president, Brother Anthony, on early Western knowledge of Korea.

The lecture will touch on the discovery of Japan by 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferno Mendes Pinto and subsequent travels by Portuguese and Spanish traders and Jesuit missionaries, from which Korea was first learned of.

There will also be some discussion of the attempts in the 18th century to combine the descriptions by Jesuits based in Japan and China with the reports of Henrick Hamel, a Dutchman shipwrecked on Jeju in 1653, whose party was the first group of Europeans to spend significant time in Korea and return to report on it.

Brother Anthony is a professor emeritus at Sogang University and a chair professor at Dankook University, and translates Korean poetry.

The lecture takes place at Somerset House near Anguk Station on March 26 at 7:30 p.m. Attendance is free for RASKB members and 7,000 won for non-members.

(paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)