About this title: Matteo Ricci was a Jesuit priest who went to China in 1577 and who wrote a book on memory in Chinese for the Ming court. Historian Jonathan Spence uses Ricci's memory book, and four images, to convey the history of European-Ming dynasty relations.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 1985-09-03
ISBN-13:9780140080988ISBN:0140080988
Description: Good. Good title in good condition. Pages are clean and tight. Covers show some shelf wear and bumping. Former library copy with usual stickers, stamps, and markings. Satisfaction guaranteed. If item not as described, return for refund of purchase price. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult, New York, New York
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780670468300ISBN:0670468304
Description: Fair in Fair jacket. 0670468304 This book has some shelf wear as well as tanning and marks on the jacket and pages. The library stamps and stickers are still on this book. This book is 350 pages. read more
Description: Very Good. 0140080988 Later Penguin trade paperback same content exactly-original text has never changed, Standard Used Condition, different cover, No writing or Highlighting, some spine creases, age tan though holding together well, sold for content. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780140080988ISBN:0140080988
Description: Good. 5 x 7.75. Minor cover wear, light discoloration of black areas, corners lightly bumped, remainder mark, interior tight and clean, xv + 350 pp including notes and index, story of a Jesuit priest from Italy who set out to bring Christian faith and Western thought to Ming dynasty China. read more
Description: Good. 1988-Paperback-Cover shows shelf wear. ---Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780140080988ISBN:0140080988
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 350 p. 20 cm. Illus. Index Bibliogrphy. Audience: General/trade. Matteo Ricci was a Jesuit priest who went to China in 1577 and who wrote a book on memory in Chinese for the Ming court. Historian Jonathan Spence uses Ricci's memory book, and four images, to convey the history of European-Ming dynasty relations. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Viking Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780140080988ISBN:0140080988
Description: Good+ Illustrated gold/purple wraps. Shelfwear with creasing to cover and edges. Light wrinkling to first few pages. Previous owner's stamp on top page edges. read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin USA, New York
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780140080988ISBN:0140080988
Description: Very Good ++ Trade paperback, xv + 350 pages including black-and-white illustrations; very light shelf wear, but unread condition. See also our listing for Spence's Treason by the Book. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 1985-09-03
ISBN-13:9780140080988ISBN:0140080988
Description: New in None as issued jacket. New, unread copy with publishers inventory mark. We ship 6 days a week, generally within 24 hours; single CDs and DVDs upgraded to 1st class! read more
"Jonathan Spence is known as a master of narrative history, so I expected him to tell a well-constructed, straightforward story, one that unfurls without interruption from beginning to end. Instead, Spence created an ingenious puzzle box of a book, with chapters that interlock in unexpected ways and a chronology that continually swirls back upon itself. The Jesuit Matteo Ricci was an expert practitioner of memorization techniques, and Spence has organized his work as a series of reminiscences evoked by particular images, memories unconstrained by location or time. As such, this book isn't the most convenient source of factual information on its subject's life, but by the end readers will have learned a great deal about Counter-Reformation missionary endeavors in Asia.
If the book falls short, it's in the treatment of Chinese society and culture. Spence is a historian of China, so he may have assumed that readers would also be familiar with this context. Still, given Ricci's many contacts among the Peking literati, it would have been illuminating to see a more extensive comparison of early modern Chinese scholars with their European counterparts. It would be especially interesting to hear how the Jesuit practice of theological disputation overlapped - or didn't - with Chinese traditions of religious thought. When Ricci advanced doctrinal arguments, was he actually connecting with his audiences, or were the conceptual frameworks simply too far apart? Given that some of Ricci's friends did convert to Christianity, what convinced them to do so (and did they understand their conversions in the same terms that the missionaries did)? While Ricci is the central figure of this work, who never sundered his attachments to European culture and values, the significance and success of his mission was ultimately determined by his Chinese interlocutors. Including more of their perspectives would have given additional richness and balance to this already finely crafted book."
"This is a serious book and not a light read, but a fascinating book. I particularly recommend it for people who are trying to learn a foreign language."
"I first read this book when it came out in hardcover, in 1984 and just re-read the hardcover copy that the library still preserved. Aside from the point that Spence fixes on Ricci's memory images to organize his historical information, and that the tale of Ricci's life could not be told without reference to the "memory palace" system he taught, this book is not primarily about that mneumonic trick. It is a historical tapestry of everything that touched on Ricci's life: his home of Macerata, Italy; his training in and much about the Jesuits; his posting to Goa and by some sidle-wise reasoning about Portugal and then Spain and then the state of sea travel. Spence uses Ricci and his four pictographs & six tales, published in China in 1605 by the Chinese inkstone connoisseur Cheng Dayue, as a part of his "The Ink Garden", as jumping off points to detail the world of 1550-1610, Ricci's life span, and as he progresses, he focuses more closely on China and Ricci's life there. Increasingly, the tapestry includes the politics of the Papacy and the international situation as well as the plight of the alien Jesuits in China, forbidden to ever leave, but ever suspected of sedition and treason. This is a masterly book not only for it's scholarship, but for the way the author draws its myriad threads into a coherent whole."
"Magnificent. An awesome history. Engaging, fun, historical, but personal, Spence uses objects important to Ricci to outline his life and experiences from Italy to China."
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