RCCHC "China and the World: Historical Interactions" Talk Series 22 - Liceat nostris artes coniungere vestras. The Joining of Chinese and Western Culture in the Writing and Teaching of the Jesuits in China and Japan (late 16th and early 17th Century)

These are the words put into the mouth of Michele Ruggieri (羅明堅), the first Superior of the Jesuit Mission in the Far East (1543-1607), stating that ‘a great desire has led me through a thousand dangers to these fortunate shores, so that your arts can join ours, and whatever Muses Latium cultivates can be woven into yours’. This lecture explores the extent to which Western norms and ways of thinking mingled with traditional values in the first Jesuit missions in China and Japan, as manifested in the texts, images and music that were produced in the late 16th and early 17th century.