N. Longobardo's contribution to the cultural and religious exchange between Europe and China during the XVII Century

During the 16th and 17th century, many Jesuit missionaries moved from Europe to China to evangelize the Gospel, one of those was Nicola Longobardo, Long Huamin 龍華民 (1565- 1655). Enjoying the appreciation of Matteo Ricci, Longobardo became his successor in 1610 as Superior of the Chinese mission. He was a prominent Jesuit personality, but historiography has put him in a direct and arbitrary comparison with Ricci and, as a result, his contribution has been underestimated. It is therefore not surprising that the works written by Longobardo, especially those in Chinese concerning science and religion, are not yet translated into European languages, studied and analysed in a systematic way. From the points of view of history, linguistics, philology and encounter between cultures, this represents a potential that has yet to be explored. The aim of the present project is to create a corpus of Longobardo’s works, and this will allow us to gain useful elements in order to value in which way and to what extent Longobardo’s knowledge and way of thinking contributed to the Chinese mission development and to the cultural and scientific exchange with the Chinese literati.