Maps, drawings, travel reports, geographical atlases, precious illuminated folios, prints and books: more than eighty objects exhibited for the first time illustrate an extraordinary journey from distant Europe to China, lasting from the last decades of the sixteenth century for more than a hundred years.
The first to establish a base on Chinese soil was Michele Ruggieri, who, with Matteo Ricci, built the little church of the Flower of the Saints in the city of Zhaoqing. Many others followed in his footsteps. They were all famous Jesuits – Antonio D’Almeida, Michal Boym, Martino Martini, Johannes Grueber, Albert D’Orville, Ferdinand Verbiest, Antoine Thomas – with the ineffable figure of Athanasius Kircher, the genius who wrote China Illustrata, hovering among them. After a long voyage they arrived in Macao, and from there struck out into the great eastern empire, opening up a new route for reciprocal acquaintance. Highly educated people, they were well-versed in the earthly and celestial sciences, calendars, geography, music and art, the first to study China’s language, history and religion. Thanks to their learning they became friends of influential people; they printed books, wrote poems and revealed to Europe an empire that was very orderly and perhaps more prosperous than those in the west. Following their vocation they came to convert the Chinese, but were deeply influenced by oriental culture: much more than many censures would have us believe.
Macao was the crucible of this extraordinary experience. It was there that the instruments necessary for the undertaking were forged, and many Macanese were its veritable and courageous protagonists.
Most of the objects exhibited come from the collection of the State Archive of Rome and other Italian archives and libraries, but also from France, Portugal and Macau.
Like every journey undertaken seriously, it will spur us on to reflect, to compare and to establish a not ephemeral bridge between two distant civilizations. (Prof. Eugenio Lo Sardo)
L’esposizione è resa possibile dal generoso supporto del Consolato Generale d’Italia a Hong Kong e Macao e l’Istituto di Cultura Italiano di Hong Kong. Un ringraziamento speciale, per il suo ruolo chiave nelle relazioni con le Autorità di Macao, va al Console Generale Alessandra Schiavo; a tutto lo staff del Consolato Generale d’Italia e al Direttore dell’Istituto di Cultura Italiano di Hong Kong Matteo Fazzi, per il suo sostegno, fondamentale per il progetto.