Signs of Man
6454 China
By Father Matteo Ricci and other Jesuit missionaries
Matteo Ricci. Edited by Gianni Guadalupi. Texts by Josef Franz Schutte S.J, Marco Bussagli
1980 / 216 PAGES.
Language: Four editions: Italian, English, French, Spanish
A series of writings by renowned missionary Matteo Ricci come together in this volume recalling the presence of the Jesuit order in China at the time of the Ming dynasty, while the different series of illustrations date back to the era of the Qing dynasty.
The history of the missions of the Jesuit fathers in China intertwines with the revolution of geographical boundaries and the expansion of colonial routes that involved Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. Direct testimonies by Father Matteo Ricci and other Jesuits enable us to reconstruct – in a detailed and captivating fashion – both the customs and traditions of Ancient China and the ways in which the Westerners found themselves communicating and interacting with the profoundly different Eastern world. Here, the historical record takes on the range of a novel: it is not a “dead” artefact but, rather, multi-faceted living matter for readers to appreciate.