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I gesuiti e la Cina. La produzione cartografica come problema tecnico e culturale (XVI-XVIII secolo)
Jesuits and China. Map-making as a technical and cultural problem (16th-18th centuries)
Piastra, Stefano
2021
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e-ISSN
2282-572X
Abstract
Starting from 1583, after Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci had based in Zhaoqing (Guangdong), the modern encounter between East and West was officially inset: besides the missionary activity, several Jesuits, most of them from Italy, introduced Western notions in the Celestial Kingdom and, during their trips back in Europe, a factual (and not mythical, as happened before) knowledge of China. In the framework of this bilateral dynamics, map-making, basis for a rational view over the Middle Kingdom, had a prominent role. In fact, once back in Italy, Michele Ruggieri was the first to carry on the idea of an atlas of China under the Ming Dynasty (late 16th-early 17th centuries), which remained unfinished as a manuscript; Matteo Ricci published in China a world map in several versions (the most famous edition is the third, dating back to 1602; the first two versions are lost) with toponyms and text in Chinese, which gained a great success; Ricci’s world map was later used as a model for Giulio Alenis’s and Francesco Sambiase’s world maps; in 1655 Martino Martini published in the Netherlands his very influential Novus Atlas Sinensis, in Latin, dedicated to the Chinese Empire, at that time just passed under the control of the Qing. The cartographical production of the Jesuits based in China, or the one drafted in Europe and focused on China, were characterized by technical problems from one side, and several cultural implications from the other. In the first case, to make in China, by a Westerner, maps in Chinese or European languages, in the years of the origin of the modern sinology, implied a close cooperation with local intellectuals, frequent linguistic misunderstandings and to cope with a printing process very different from the Western tradition. Regarding cultural implications, to publish in Europe an atlas of China intersected with the transliterations of the Chinese toponyms or the use of the Chinese maps, found by the Jesuits during their Chinese stay and usually obsolete, as a source. The paper will strike a critical balance with regard to the nexus among the Jesuits, China and map-making, encompassed between the late 16th century and the Imperial ban of Christian preaching in the first quarter of the 18th century. Further epistemological themes of this cartographical production will be discussed, such as its role in cultural mediation (we have significant and ‘intercrossed’ quotations by Ricci and Chinese intellectuals published in Ricci’s world map), or the instrumental use of maps, in China, to accredit the Jesuits as learned scholars and, on the basis of the principle of authority, facilitate their evangelizing mission in the Middle Kingdom.
A partire dal 1583, in seguito all’insediamento di Michele Ruggieri e Matteo Ricci a Zhaoqing (Guangdong), si inaugurò la stagione dell’incontro tra Oriente e Occidente in età moderna: accanto all’attività missionaria, numerosi gesuiti, in buona parte italiani, introdussero nozioni occidentali nel Celeste Impero e, in concomitanza dei loro rientri, importarono in Europa una conoscenza reale, e non più mitica, della Cina. All’interno di tale flusso culturale caratterizzato da un duplice verso, la produzione cartografica, funzionale a una comprensione razionale e “materialistica” dei territori, rivestì un ruolo preminente. Non a caso, Michele Ruggieri, una volta tornato in Italia, ipotizzò per primo (fine XVI-inizi XVII secolo) di pubblicare un atlante dell’Impero Ming per il pubblico europeo, poi rimasto incompiuto e sotto forma di manoscritto; Matteo Ricci stampò in Cina in più versioni (l’edizione più famosa è la terza, risalente al 1602; le prime due invece non ci sono pervenute) un planisfero con toponimi e testi in mandarino destinato a enorme diffusione, seguito nei decenni successivi da lavori analoghi di Giulio Aleni e Francesco Sambiase; nel 1655 Martino Martini ebbe successo laddove Ruggieri aveva fallito, pubblicando in Olanda un fondamentale atlante del Celeste Impero, da poco passato sotto la Dinastia Qing, in lingua latina, il Novus Atlas Sinensis. La produzione cartografica da parte di gesuiti stanziatisi in Cina o elaborata in Europa su temi cinesi presentò problemi tecnici ed ebbe varie implicazioni culturali. In relazione alla prima situazione sopraesposta, creare carte in mandarino o in lingue europee in Cina da parte di un occidentale, agli esordi della sinologia stessa, rendeva infatti necessario un lavoro in stretta collaborazione con eruditi locali, mettendo in conto frequenti errori linguistici, e l’affidarsi a una tradizione tipografica del tutto diversa. Riguardo alla seconda opzione possibile, stampare un atlante della Cina in Europa poneva questioni circa la traslitterazione della toponomastica o in relazione all’uso della cartografia cinese, reperita dai gesuiti durante i loro soggiorni nel Celeste Impero e spesso obsoleta, come fonte per la propria opera. L’articolo traccerà un bilancio critico riguardo al quadro complesso dei nessi tra i gesuiti, la Cina e la creazione di cartografia, esperienza conclusasi nel primo quarto del XVIII secolo in seguito al bando imperiale della predicazione cristiana in territorio cinese. Si discuteranno inoltre temi epistemologici e interpretativi sullo sfondo di questa produzione, quali il significato e la funzione di mediazione culturale da attribuire alle carte elaborate in tale fase (passi significativi e “incrociati” in proposito, da parte sia di Ricci sia di eruditi cinesi suoi collaboratori, sono presenti nel planisfero ricciano), oppure il loro uso strumentale da parte gesuitica per accreditarsi presso l’elite cinese come uomini dotti, e, sulla base del principio di autorevolezza così ottenuto, favorire indirettamente la propria missione evangelizzatrice.
Starting from 1583, after Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci had based in Zhaoqing (Guangdong), the modern encounter between East and West was officially inset: besides the missionary activity, several Jesuits, most of them from Italy, introduced Western notions in the Celestial Kingdom and, during their trips back in Europe, a factual (and not mythical, as happened before) knowledge of China. In the framework of this bilateral dynamics, map-making, basis for a rational view over the Middle Kingdom, had a prominent role. In fact, once back in Italy, Michele Ruggieri was the first to carry on the idea of an atlas of China under the Ming Dynasty (late 16th-early 17th centuries), which remained unfinished as a manuscript; Matteo Ricci published in China a world map in several versions (the most famous edition is the third, dating back to 1602; the first two versions are lost) with toponyms and text in Chinese, which gained a great success; Ricci’s world map was later used as a model for Giulio Alenis’s and Francesco Sambiase’s world maps; in 1655 Martino Martini published in the Netherlands his very influential Novus Atlas Sinensis, in Latin, dedicated to the Chinese Empire, at that time just passed under the control of the Qing. The cartographical production of the Jesuits based in China, or the one drafted in Europe and focused on China, were characterized by technical problems from one side, and several cultural implications from the other. In the first case, to make in China, by a Westerner, maps in Chinese or European languages, in the years of the origin of the modern sinology, implied a close cooperation with local intellectuals, frequent linguistic misunderstandings and to cope with a printing process very different from the Western tradition. Regarding cultural implications, to publish in Europe an atlas of China intersected with the transliterations of the Chinese toponyms or the use of the Chinese maps, found by the Jesuits during their Chinese stay and usually obsolete, as a source. The paper will strike a critical balance with regard to the nexus among the Jesuits, China and map-making, encompassed between the late 16th century and the Imperial ban of Christian preaching in the first quarter of the 18th century. Further epistemological themes of this cartographical production will be discussed, such as its role in cultural mediation (we have significant and ‘intercrossed’ quotations by Ricci and Chinese intellectuals published in Ricci’s world map), or the instrumental use of maps, in China, to accredit the Jesuits as learned scholars and, on the basis of the principle of authority, facilitate their evangelizing mission in the Middle Kingdom.
Source
Stefano Piastra, "I gesuiti e la Cina. La produzione cartografica come problema tecnico e culturale (XVI-XVIII
secolo)" in: "Bollettino dell'Associazione Italiana di Cartografia 171", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2022, pp. 20-33
secolo)" in: "Bollettino dell'Associazione Italiana di Cartografia 171", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2022, pp. 20-33
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it
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internazionale
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