Pablo Clain

Paul Klein (25 January 1652, in Cheb, Bohemia, now the Czech Republic – 30 August 1717, in Manila, Philippines; often used in Spanish: Pablo Clain, Latin: Paulus Klein, Czech: Pavel Klein), was a Jesuit missionary, pharmacist, botanist, author of an astronomic observation, writer, rector of Colegio de Cavite as well as the rector of Colegio de San José and later Jesuit Provincial Superior in the Philippines, the highest ranking Jesuit official in the country. Klein is known as an important personality of life during the 18th-century Manila.

Klein is known for writing a standardized Tagalog dictionary as well as the first person to describe Palau for the Europeans and to draw the historically first map of Palau, an act which practically equaled to the discovery of Palau. He is also known to write the first astronomic observation from Manila of a moon eclipse and an overview of medicinal plants in local as well as European languages as well as recipes for their usage.

Paul Klein was born in the town of Cheb, Kingdom of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in 1652. Klein entered the Society of Jesus in 1669. He applied for a travel to the colonies in 1678.

Klein traveled to the Philippines alongside the fourth Jesuit mission dispatched from Bohemia in 1678,which consisted mostly of doctors and pharmacists through Genova, Spain and Mexico (1681), arriving to the Philippines in 1682.

Klein first became a pharmacist. Pharmacy in those days was closely connected to the use of herbs and botanizing. Klein thus became the first person to describe native Philippine medicinal plants, using their names in several languages including Tagalog, Visaya and Pampanga when he published his renowned Remedios fáciles para diferentes enfermedades ... in 1712.

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Wikipedia