Chiara Ombretta Tommasi – författare

From the 17th century onwards, in a context of increasingly intense trade and diplomatic contacts, the exchange of scientific ideas became a key element in the encounters between the European world and the cultures of the Far East. This volume investigates the ways in which scientific knowledge was transferred and disseminated to new audiences, whose cultural background was very different from that in which such knowledge had originally developed. A vital role in this process was played by the Jesuit mission in China, whose members included intellectuals with a keen interest in cross-cultural comparison. The study of the local languages enabled the transfer of knowledge in both directions, through translations of existing texts and the production of new ones for both Chinese and European audiences. The papers in the volume, authored by specialists in various fields of cultural studies, highlight the intellectual effort and strategies by which scientific works were made available and understandable beyond cultural differences. The volume will be welcome to those interested not only in cultural interactions between Europe and the Far East, but also in translation studies, particularly in the dissemination of scientific knowledge.

This volume collects the proceedings of the concluding conference in Turin of the SERICA project and hosts the contributions of 20 scholars on topics related to cultural contact between East and West from classical antiquity to the 19th century, mainly from a literary and linguistic perspective, which does not neglect some examples of material culture (books and artifacts; inscriptions). Examining the dynamics of cultural encounters along the Silk Roads, the volume focuses on different periods and authors. The division into four sections mirrors such a difference: the first part highlights some case studies pertaining to the classical world (mainly Indo-Iranian and Greco-Roman); the second section discusses some relevant figures of the ‘Jesuit century’, including non-Jesuit scholars and academic debates up to the 19th century; the third part is concentrated on philosophical texts, outlining the reception of Aristotle in China and presenting the first Latin translations of some Chinese classics; finally, the last section deals with some new perspectives obtained by exploiting digital resources. Thanks to the high profile of the scholars, the volume represents a significant progress in the comparative studies.