The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci - by Jonathan D Spence (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the renowned historian and author of The Death of Woman Wang, a vivid and gripping account of the 16th-century missionary's remarkable sojourn to Ming China

In 1577, the Jesuit Priest Matteo Ricci set out from Italy to bring Christian faith and Western thought to Ming dynasty China. To capture the complex emotional and religious drama of Ricci's extraordinary life, Jonathan Spence relates his subject's experiences with several images that Ricci himself created--four images derived from the events in the Bible and others from a book on the art of memory that Ricci wrote in Chinese and circulated among members of the Ming dynasty elite. A rich and compelling narrative about a fascinating life, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci is also a significant work of global history, juxtaposing the world of Counter-Reformation Europe with that of Ming China.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci

"An extraordinarily delicate achievement . . . Resembles the portrait of an age."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A gripping portrait of late-sixteenth-century cultural history in both the West and the East."
--Natalie Zemon Davis, Princeton University, author of The Return of Martin Guerre

"An extraordinary tour de force, a work of literature and at the same time a remarkable wide-ranging use of historical sources. This is the kind of history that most people in the profession cannot even begin to write."
--John King Fairbank, Harvard University

About the Author

Jonathan Spence (1936-2021): Was the author of more than a dozen well-regarded books "which illuminate China's vast history through details that illuminated bigger pictures and themes. (The New York Times)" including The Gate of Heavenly Peace, Treason by the Book, and The Death of Woman Wang. His awards include a Guggenheim and a MacArthur Fellowship. He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from 1993 to 2008.