Matteo Ricci: Jezuita v Číně – Fontana Michela (2021)

The book depicts the life adventures of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), revered as a symbol of the first encounter between Europe and China. This Jesuit missionary was the first European to reside long-term in the Middle Kingdom. He possessed not only a strong personality but also an exceptional memory, mastered the Chinese language perfectly, and became the first translator of works from the classical Chinese canon into Latin, serving as the first mediator of Chinese culture to the West. In this very thorough biography, the author, a respected historian of science, has managed to summarize the important twists and turns of the endless journey that Li Madou, as Ricci is called in Chinese, undertook in the land and culture of China at the end of the significant Ming dynasty. The portrait sketched by the biography shows an energetic, brave missionary endowed with a strong love for science and a remarkable intellectual curiosity, which allowed him to penetrate the mysteries of Confucian philosophy and Chinese mentality while also significantly contributing to the development of mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the contemporary Chinese world. Unlike previous attempts at Ricci's biography, this life story does not glorify the hero or saint, nor does it favor the apostle or scientist, but rather presents Ricci as a human being, with historical and human dimensions...