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Paternicò, Luisa M. (ed.) (2014). Sulla via del Catai, vol. 11, monographic issue, La Generazione dei Giganti 2, Altri protagonisti del dialogo culturale fra Europa e Cina. Genova: Il Portolano.
LUISA MARIA PATERNICO
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Paternicò, Luisa M. (ed.). (2011). The Generation of Giants. Jesuit missionaries and scientists in China on the footsteps of Matteo Ricci, Trento: Centro Studi Martino Martini. ISBN 978888443391-6
LUISA MARIA PATERNICO
"How we chose the “Giants” Luisa M. Paternicò – “Sapienza” University of Rome “This is the story of a small group of men who, breaking with the dominant spirit of their times and recalling a distant past, restored the concept of cultural adaptation to a central position in the world mission of Christianity. […] Their story is worth telling not simply as an important segment of world history, but because it has much to say […] to a world which has not yet learned to break down the barriers of cultural, racial and national pride.” Gorge H. Dunne’s words at the end of the prologue of Generation of Giants (1962) have been the driving force for this monographical issue. The authors of this volume offer to the reader a vivid, though concise, portrait of the main characters of the Jesuit China mission, from the end of the 16th until the beginning of the 18th century. The choice of the missionaries presented in this volume has been inspired by different factors. First of all, the wish to familiarize the reader about some Jesuits who are probably less known than the pioneer of the China mission, Matteo Ricci, but certainly not less influent in the history of the relations between China and the West. At the same time we tried to choose a bouquet of talents as multicolored as possible, including some missionaries who, for chronological reasons, had been excluded from Dunne’s work, which concentrated on the last decades of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Finally, we followed the leading definition of “giants” offered by Giuliano Bertuccioli in Italia e Cina (1996) concerning the China Jesuits: […] “those missionaries proved incredibly endowed both physically and mentally. This is witnessed by their resistance to endless hardships, including those of the long and dangerous journey from Europe to China; by their accommodation abilities and, above all, by the way they were able to support themselves and the mission […]; by their remarkable, sometimes phenomenal, cultural production. Astronomers, mathematicians, geographers, theologicians, painters, musicians, experts in hydraulics and ballistics: the China Jesuits of that time were definitely ad omnia parati”. After an introduction on the beginning of the Jesuit mission in the Celestial Empire, we will present those missionaries who, as we believe, were key figures in the China mission – being aware that others could have been included. For their strength in facing and overcoming indescribable difficulties and unease – including plagues and persecutions – as well as for their ability in making themselves known as scholars and intellectuals in China - fighting off the distrust and the hostility of the Chinese as well as that of the missionaries of other orders – they deserve to be called “giants”: Johann Schreck (1576-1630), who wanted to move to a country that, as witnesses used to say, was ruled by learned men and where scholars were not persecuted” (Iannaccone); Giulio Aleni (1582-1649), the humble “Fujian’s apostle” who first “described the world as it was known and imagined in the West in the 17th century to the Chinese” (De Troia); Adam Schall (1591-1666) “the first Christian missionary to be in charge of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, opening the way for later missionaries to stay at the Imperial Court in Peking” (C. von Collani); Michael Boym (1612-1659) “partly a missionary, partly a scientist, a diplomat, a traveller and a dreamer” (Miazek); Martino Martini (1614-1661), who “was the first to introduce China to the European readers” (Masini); Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), “the transmitter of Western science and technology to the Far East” (Golvers); Prospero Intorcetta (1625-1696), who “had an outstanding knowledge of Chinese language and culture” (Paternicò); Tomas Pereira (1646-1708) who “was appreciated for his musical talent as well as for his ability to fix clocks, make musical instruments and automations” (Antonucci); Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730) who “was somehow forced by the circumstances to propose an alternative accommodation strategy” (Paternicò); Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), who made “masterfully crafted paintings” and “also worked as an architect and as a designer of objects produced in the imperial palace workshops” (Salviati)."
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Francesco Brancati, Martino Martini and Shanghai’s Lao Tang (Old Church). Mapping, Perception and Cultural Implications of a Place
Stefano Piastra
L.M. Paternicò, C. von Collani, R. Scartezzini (eds.), Martino Martini, Man of Dialogue, (Proceedings of the International Conference “Martino Martini (1614-1661), Man of Dialogue” held in Trento on October, 15-17th, 2014, for the 400th anniversary of Martini’s birth), Trento, 2016
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Philippe Couplet SJ e il ritorno della Bibbia in Europa
Patrizio Foresta
In via in saecula. La Bibbia di Marco Polo tra Europa e Cina, Roma 2012
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LA CONTROVERSIA DEI RITI CINESI storia di una lunga incomprensione
Gianni Criveller
Quaderni del Museo Popoli e Culture. PIME Milano, 2012
Lo scritto introduce ai principali sviluppi della controversia sui Riti cinesi (secoli XVII-XVIII), che ha avuto un impatto devastante sulla vicenda missionaria in Cina. Particolare attenzione viene data al background religioso e ideologico dei gruppi missionari, delle personalità coinvolte nella controversia, inclusi convertiti e funzionari cinesi. La controversia sui Riti iniziò nella provincia del Fujian a metà del 1635, quando i missionari domenicani e francescani appena arrivati si opposero al metodo di evangelizzazione dei gesuiti, introdotto in Cina da Matteo Ricci, e nel Fujian da Giulio Aleni. La Santa Sede fu chiamata a dichiarare se ai cristiani fosse consentito o meno di partecipare ai rituali ancestrali. Roma non è stata in grado di prendere una decisione chiara e la controversia si è trascinata per diversi decenni. Dopo il divieto ai Riti emanato dal vicario apostolico del Fujian Charles Maigrot MEP (1693), la controversia ha ripreso slancio, con il coinvolgimento personale dell'imperatore Kangxi e di papa Clemente XI. La controversia ha raggiunto un livello incredibile di complicazione e animosità. Una grande quantità di scritti di chierici e intellettuali fu prodotta in Cina e in Europa. Due legazioni papali in Cina (XVII secolo) non riuscirono a risolvere la questione, quanto piuttosto adaumentare la tensione tra Pechino e Roma e l'amarezza dei missionari. Dal 1704, quando Roma condannò nuovamente i Riti, Clemente XI era determinato a salvare comunque la missione in Cina dalla distruzione. Ma i due obiettivi non erano compatibili. Nel 1742 Benedetto XIV condannò i Riti nella maniera più solenne, mettendo definitivamente fine non solo alla secolare controversia, ma anche alla Missione in Cina avviata da Matteo Ricci. I gesuiti persero una grande battaglia, la loro reputazione crollò, al punto che la stessa Compagnia di Gesù fu soppressa nel 1773. Nel 1939 la Santa Sede, sotto l'influenza di Celso Costantini, a suo tempo Delegato Apostolico in Cina, annullò il divieto dei Riti.
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Two Astronomers: Martino Martini and Johann Adam Schall von Bell
Claudia von Collani
The encounter between the Court astronomer in Peking, Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592-1666) and his confrere Martino Martini (1614-1661) did not end well. However, Martini defended Schall in Rome where Schall was accused to be responsible for the superstitious calendar in China. At the end Schall had the permission to be the Director of the Qintianqian.
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Philippe Couplet e il ritorno della Bibbia di Marco Polo in Europa
Patrizio Foresta
Relazione tenuta Biblioteca Reale di Bruxelles in occasione dell'apertura della mostra ln via, in saecula. La Bibbia di Marco polo tra Europa e Cina, 6 novembre 2014
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“Beijing as a Missionary Translation Center in the Eighteenth Century” [2022]
Eugenio Menegon
in T.H. Barret and Lawrence Wang-chi Wong eds., Crossing Borders: Sinology in Translation Studies, series Asian Translation Traditions no. 4, Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, pp. 37-74, 2022
This essay is part of my broader exploration of the European’s life and experience in Qing Beijing. In this contribution I aim to briefly reconstruct the “materiality” of a broadly conceived “missionary translation project” in Qing Beijing, as part of the daily activities and the long-term goals of Beijing’s Europeans, including an examination of lesser known actors and their networks, types of raw materials used, location of activities, transportation and circulation of written materials, and economic factors aiding or hindering the enterprise. In doing so, I wish to historically contextualize the development of this transnational initiative, bridging the Qing court, native scholarly circles, and European counterparts in Rome, Paris, London, Lisbon, St. Petersburg and Berlin, and explain in a preliminary fashion the multiple reasons that motivated it. I will first offer a survey of the role of the missionaries in Beijing, and how they logistically sustained their enterprise there. I will then quickly shift to the domain of translation and consider what were the necessary material elements to support translation in the phase of the nascent “Sinology” in Qing Beijing, through books and libraries within the missionary residences (the “Four Churches”), and acquisition via the local book market and acquaintances. I will next briefly examine the intellectual elements necessary for translation, relying on recent scholarship about the French Jesuits at the Northern Church (Beitang), and consider the linguistic competence of the translators, their intellectual interests, and the interests of the intended readership of their translations in Europe. As a contrast, I will offer a case study based on my primary research: the translation work of a Propaganda missionary in Beijing, whose work was never published, but nevertheless circulated in unexpected ways. In my conclusion, I will offer a brief and preliminary assessment of this translation enterprise in Beijing.
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La Cina e il cristianesimo: La Controversia dei Riti Cinesi
Gianni Criveller
Ad Gentes: Teologia e Antropologia della Missione, 2011
La storia della Controversia dei Riti Cinesi
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“Deliver Us from Evil: Confession and Salvation in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Chinese Catholicism.” ABRIDGED [2010]
Eugenio Menegon
Abridged reprint in monographic issue “Politiche sacramentali tra Vecchio e Nuovi Mondi” (Maria Teresa Fattori ed.) of journal Cristianesimo nella Storia. Studies in History, Theology and Exegesis, 31, 2010, pp. 551-598.
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