The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci

Author - Jonathan D. Spence ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Penguin (Non-Classics) was reviewed on 16-Oct-2008.

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1) Paperback Book The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Penguin (Non-Classics). Not being interested in Christian missionary work in China, I had resisted reading this book for years. That was a terrible mistake and another example of how you can´t judge a book by its cover or title. The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci is not so much a book about Matteo Ricci or missionaries as it is a look at the two continents of Europe and Asia in the late 1500´s to 1610 (when Matteo Ricci died). It covers subjects such as crusades, plagues, theology, the arts, travel, China leading up to the fall of the Ming (1644), corruption, punishments, dress, the role of Buddhism in Chinese society, slavery, sodomy, food and so much more.

Yes, it is a book for historians or those interested in historical times, especially the Inquisition and Christianity´s outreach to foreign shores, but its breadth of topics is so unusual, and its treatment of these subjects through the eyes of one man who left his native Italy to travel to Rome, Portugal, Goa, and eventually China so detailed, that the rewards of reading this book were wholly unexpected and thus a wonderful surprise--like opening a tin to discover a jewel box.¤

2) Paperback Book The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Penguin (Non-Classics). This book had some wonderful nuggets about Ricci and China, but there were so many tangents and mind-numbing details that it was challenging to read. The main issue is that the book is thematic in nature rather than chronological. On one page Spence is talking in detail about China in 1582 and the next he´s talking in detail about Portugal in 1567. He flips back and forth across the decades and the continents enough that it´s very difficult to get a picture of Ricci´s life. A lot of Spence´s content seems pulled from history books on Europe, having little or nothing to do with either Ricci or China. If you want a random, panoramic view of life in the late 1500´s this book is for you. If you´re looking for a comprehensive, orderly look at Ricci or China or his memory system you may be disappointed. It´s worth the read, but with appropriate expectations.¤

3) Paperback Book The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Penguin (Non-Classics). You can find a summary below with floors for chapters, http://olivierinshanghai.free.fr/npds/chinois/ricci.pdf
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4) Paperback Book The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Penguin (Non-Classics). I wrote my BA of Humanities thesis on Matteo Ricci and found Spence´s book valuable for its information but mildly frustrating. "Memory Palace" is an excellence source for facts about Ricci´s life for those who are not fluent in multiple languages or do not have access to the research material that Spence does. I turned to Spence for his commentary on Ricci´s various writings that I did not have access to and for various tidbits of facts. Furthermore, Spence does a good job of illustrating the world that Ricci lived and worked in. For example, I was enlightened on the relationship of the Jesuits to the Portuguese King and how the Portuguese port of Macao in China operated. It was good background information to supplement the primary text I was using.

However, the frustrating part of this book is its organization. While it´s an interesting idea to organize it according to the first four Chinese characters in his mnemonic system (or "memory palace"), it makes for a near meaningless train of thought; I ended up skimming the lengthy chapter on "water." I´m still disappointed by the end because Spence offers no real conclusion or summary, just an enigmatic statement. I had previously read Spence´s "Death of Woman Wang" and I realize that it is Spence´s style to amass historical information with unorthodox organization (I think it´s his selling point). It´s creative, but not very useful. Fortunately, the book has an excellent index, so it´s fairly easy to re-find significant passages.

For those that want to read an actual narrative of Ricci´s mission, I highly recommend the English translation of Trigault´s transcription of Ricci´s mission journals; this was the primary text for my paper. I found it very interesting and suprisingly high in entertainment value, considering its origin.

Trigault, Nicolas S. J. "China in the Sixteenth Century:
The Journals of Mathew Ricci: 1583-1610."
trans. Lous J. Gallagher, S.J. (New York: Random House, Inc. 1953).

Also recommended for his examination of the religious issues involved with Ricci and the other Jesuits preaching Christianity in China is Jaques Gernet´s "China and the Christian Impact." To sum up, it answers this question and more, "What happens when you try to insert the Christian God into the ancient writings of a sophisticated society?"

Gernet, Jaques, "China and the Christian Impact." (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).¤

5) Paperback Book The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Penguin (Non-Classics). Having been hipped to the existence of the phenomenon of memory palaces by the books of Thomas Harris, (I´d forgotten all about them after reading one of Tom Wujec´s earlier books) I was looking forward to finding a how-to book on the subject. The Memory Palaces Of Matteo Ricci, however, is, again not it. I already felt burned by Francis Yates´ "Art Of Memory", which is more about Hermeticism than the purported subject.

Interesting though it may be, the book is mainly about Ricci´s life and times as a Jesuit missionary in China, something I would have gotten from any biography about the man, which in fact this is. There is some cursory mention made of the principles of using loci for the purpose of memory, but that´s it. Not even Ricci´s own method is analyzed or discussed in great detail.¤

6) Paperback Book The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Penguin (Non-Classics). Matteo Ricci (1552-1616), an Italian Jesuit, entered China in 1583 to spread Catholicism in the largely Confucian country. In order to make a persuasive argument for the educated Chinese to abandon their traditional faith for the new one he was carrying, Ricci realized that he would have to prove the general superiority of Western culture. He did so by teaching young Confucian scholars tricks to increase their memory skills--an important advantage in a nation with countless laws and rituals that had to be learned by heart. Ricci attracted numerous students with this method; more important, Ricci came to have a sympathetic understanding for China that he communicated to Rome, and thence to the European nations at large. Spence´s portrait of Ricci is a gem of historical writing. --Gregory MacNamee¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 13-Nov-2008, 01400809889780140080988, 820-880-180-4X0-960-AMB-8

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