Pietro Tacchi Venturi Opere storiche del p. Matteo Ricci s.i., edite a cura del Comitato per le onoranze nazionali con prolegomeni..., Macerata, 2 vols.

Matteo Giro

Printed book, 278 × 206 mm

Considered the most important critical edition on the writings of Father Matteo Ricci (Macerata 1552-Pechino 1610), the famous mathematician and Jesuit missionary who first contributed, during the Ming dynasty, to the evangelization of China and introduced the first elements of Euclidean geometry to the Chinese culture. The work also presents Ricci’s final written work for the first time in Italian, thanks to the fortuitous discovery in 1909 of the original manuscript, which had been considered lost for over three centuries.
It is a sort of diary in which Ricci narrates the arduous adventure of establishing the first Christian mission in that distant land. This edition also contains numerous ancient geographical maps, portraits, and reproductions of important historical documents, including the letter in Chinese addressed in 1590 by Pope Sixtus V to the Emperor of China Wanli. This copy is from the library of Giovanni Vacca (1872-1953), an Italian mathematician and expert sinologist.

Bibliography: G. Filograssi, “Fonti Ricciane: opere edite ed inedite del P. Matteo Ricci S. J.,” in Gregorianum, XXXII (1951), pp. 453-459; G. Ricciardolo, “L’autenticità dei Commentari dalla Cina di p. Matteo Ricci s.i.,” in Rivista degli studi orientali, LXXIII (1999), pp. 165-183; G. Criveller, Matteo Ricci missione e ragione: una biografia intellettuale, (Milan: 2010); G. Aleni, Vita del maestro Ricci, Xitai del grande Occidente, (Brescia: 2010); R. Po-chia Hsia, Matteo Ricci and the Catholic Mission to China, 1583-1610. A Short History with Documents, (Indianapolis-Cambridge: 2016).