Joseph Stocklein

Joseph Stocklein (1676–1733) was a Jesuit priest and scholar from Oettingen, Bavaria. He entered the Society of Jesus in Vienna around 1700 and later worked in Graz, where he directed the Jesuit library. There he compiled and edited correspondence from missionaries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, publishing these accounts to provide European readers with both religious reports and geographic information.

His principal work, the Neue Welt-Bott, first published in 1726, combined missionary letters, travel narratives, and engraved maps. Among these were early printed depictions of Taiwan and a plan of Nagasaki, both issued that same year from Jesuit sources. Stocklein’s volumes merged missionary history with cartographic detail, contributing significantly to Europe’s understanding of distant regions. He remained active until his death in Graz in 1733.