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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Another new arrival: Qu Yi 曲藝, Yesuhui yu Mingmo Jidujiao yishu 耶穌會與明末基督教藝術 (The Society of Jesus and Christian art in the late Ming dynasty).

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

The summer break is over at the Ricci Institute! Here is one of our recent acquisitions: Fandigang tushuguan cang Zhongguo chuantong guji shanben zongmu tiyao 梵蒂岡圖書館藏中國傳統古籍善本總目提要 [Catalogue with critical abstracts of traditional Chinese rare books in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana]

Fandigang tushuguan cang Zhongguo chuantong guji shanben zongmu tiyao 梵蒂岡圖書館藏中國傳統古籍善本總目提要 on top of other books.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social War Torn China provides a firsthand account of the humanitarian conditions in China during the latter stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War (part of World War II). The author, Martin A. Hopkins, was a missionary and relief worker.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Some slides from the collection of the Jesuit Far East Province, all taken in Taiwan, our guess is in the 1960s. Doesn't the last slide remind you of the films of Hou Hsiao-hsien?

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social Honglou meng 紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Chamber) in a bilingual, English-Chinese collector's edition, published in 2011 with beautiful illustrations. It is one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Illustrations from the Scheut missionaries' book Voyages de Bruxelles en Mongolie (1873). The illustrations show a Beijing street scene, Hong Kong, and a Mongol camp.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

The map of "China" from the 3rd edition of Evariste Régis Huc's (1813-1860) L'Empire chinois (1857). Note how the provinces of China proper (in green) are distinguished from the broader Qing empire of which they were part.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social Tao Xiang's chromolithographic edition of the Song-dynasty manual on architecture, Yingzao fashi 營造法式 from 1933. Tao's edition was the first version of this famous treatise to print the illustrations in actual color, as opposed to merely using color labels.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

We recently acquired six letters relating to a planned revision of Henri Dugout, S.J.'s 屠恩烈 (1875-1927) maps of Jiangsu province. The letters date from 1926 to 1932 and were sent by various individuals in different locations in Jiangsu.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Six-panel folding screen (byōbu) depicting a Nanban (Southern Barbarian) procession of Portuguese traders and missionaries arriving in Japan during the late 16th century. Created with ink, color, and gold. This piece is a replica.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Recent acquisition: Martino Martini's De Bello Tartarico historia from 1654, a history of the Manchu conquest of China in 1644

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Six woodblocks carved on both sides to print 12 leaves of Hara Nensai's 原念齋 (1774-1820) work Sentetsu sōdan 先哲叢談, a collection of biographies of Japanese Confucians of the early to mid-Tokugawa period written in classical Chinese (kanbun 漢文).

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Here at the Ricci Institute we're welcoming the incoming BC class of 2030 with this image from our archive on Ginling Women's College in Nanjing, China. We wish all new students a smooth transition to college life and we hope you'll visit our Institute during your time on campus. #BC2030

Archival documents spread out on a flat surface.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

For a recent class visit to the Institute, we had the opportunity to take out some of our French-language publications and archival materials. Here you see a French passport issued to a missionary in the late 19th century, as well as a French-language book on China from the 18th century.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

The Gospel of Luke, published by the Scottish Bible Society 蘇格蘭聖經教會 (NBSS) in Hankow 漢口 (present-day Wuhan), with annotations and a map, in 1909. Recent acquisition.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

The Daoyuan jingcui 道原精萃 is a comprehensive eight-volume compendium of late-imperial Chinese Christian literature. It was designed as a systematic introduction to the Catholic faith for the Chinese literati and general public. Our edition is published in late Qing dynasty in 1887.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Another recent acquisition: an etched portrait of Adam Schall von Bell (Tang Ruowang 湯若望, 1592-1666), Jesuit missionary and astronomer at the Qing court.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Today we share some images of a recent acquisition. Here are details from Abraham Ortelius's world map, dating from 1579. Our copy is beautifully hand-colored. We especially like the two sea creatures.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Pictures of Sheyuan mocui 涉園墨萃, a book on inkstones published by Republican-era bibliophile Tao Xiang 陶湘 (1871-1940). Tao's publications count as among the most exquisite from China in the 1920s.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Examples of illustrations from the French press during the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901). The rebellion involved conflicts with Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries and provided an excuse for imperialist intervention in the form the Eight Nation Army.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

These days we've been working on recording video here at the Institute. Stay tuned for interesting content featuring our visiting scholars!

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Reposted by Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History

Yajun Mo @yajunmo.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Took my Modern China class to visit @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social yesterday! The incredibly talented librarian and my fellow China historian Mårten Söderblom Saarela and his colleagues brought out all sorts of interesting materials for us! What a treat!

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

A class in the history of modern China visited the Institute and we brought out a variety of primary sources, including Communist posters, Republican-era new year's prints, and manuscript memoirs.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

A few panels from a Chinese cartoon from the Republican era titled "Biography of Jigong" (Jigong zhuan 濟公傅). Jigong (1130-1209) was a Buddhist monk who became a kind of folk hero after his death. Legendary stories circulated about him.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

A Korean world map, probably dating from the 19th century. The map shows East Asia in some detail, but not Western Eurasia. Surrounding the central continent is a continental ring where various fantastical countries are located.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

The Institute recently acquired a set of account books from the Beijing diocese in the early to mid-1950s. This was a period of great change for the Catholic church in China, as the new Communist authorities wrestled control of the church from the Vatican.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Details of a map of Asia dating from the "Third year of the French Republic," i.e., 1795. Its authors were Robert de Vaugondy (1688-1766) and Charles-François Delamarche (1740-1817). The map shows Manchuria and Mongolia as "Chinese Tartary."

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Happy New Year! A few more Foley photos today: From a flight with the Republic of China Airforce on February 15, 1958. The plane took off from Songshan airbase in Taipei. #空軍 #中華民國空軍 #空軍第十大隊

An ROC airman stands in front of an aircraft on the tarmac.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

A few more scans of contact prints of Frederick Foley's photographs from Taiwan in the 1950s. These three street snaps were all taken on 35mm film.

A black and white photo of urban stairs.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Photos (more of Frederick Foley's contact prints, for which see our earlier posts) from the set of the movie "Love Song of the Tea Mountains" (Chashan qingge 茶山情歌), taken on July 4, 1959, in Taiwan. The movie was released in 1962.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Rubbings from the stone plaques at Wujun xianxian zongci 吳郡先賢總祠 shrine in Suzhou (1829). The rubbings contain portraits of famous people from the region, from earliest times to the early nineteenth century.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Staff and friends of the Institute gathered for some coffee and cake to celebrate Christmas and all of the work we've done together here this year.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Details from the Anthony E. Clark Chinese poster collection. These 84 posters span the years 1965 to 1983. The contain a small number of posters from the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and a larger number from the early Reform-period in the 1980s.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Proclamation issued by the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi and the Governor of Guangdong, on September 17, 1895, quoting an imperial edict. The edict orders local officials to protect churches and “Westerners” (yangren 洋人) in the wake of violent attacks on foreigners in Sichuan.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social Three maps depicting Macao reflecting different cartographic traditions. One shows Macao and a part of the Guangdong coastline. Another shows the peninsula in greater detail. The larger map is from the Qianlong emperor's great atlas of much of continental Asia.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

When roaming our stacks a few weeks ago, we found this set of four acupuncture charts. They depict, in color, a male body with acupuncture points marked. The set was published in Shanghai in 1955. The charts emphasize the locations of organs, nerves, arteries, bones, and muscles.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social The so-called Calbot Calotype, an early photographic process invented in 1841, was introduced for a Catholic missionary readership in this book by Antonacci Pietro from 1843. The book nicely complements our substantial holdings of missionary photographs.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social Details from a to-scale facsimile reproduction from 1925 of Clement XI's apostolic constitution Ex illa die of March 19, 1715 in Chinese translation. The Kangxi emperor objected to this interference in the religious lives of his subjects.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social Our copy of the first edition of Zhang Shuqi's 張書旂 (Shizhong 世忠, 1900-1957) Lingmao ji 翎毛集, published in 1929. The book is intended as a textbook to study ornithological illustration, depicting a great number of birds in different settings.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Today we catalogued a number of issues of China missionary bulletin (Chuanjiao xuezhi 傳教學誌), which was published in Hong Kong in the 1950s. This was a tumultuous time for the Catholic missions to China, as the Communist authorities expelled or imprisoned foreign missionaries.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

📣 Calling BC undergraduates: Fr. Robert Carbonneau, C.P., Ph. D., a researcher at the Institute, will teach the class ”Theology 3008: Asian American Catholics: A Journey of Faith and Theology“ at Boston College in Spring 2026. If you haven‘t registered yet, consider doing so!

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Upcoming event at IAJS: Gosciwit Malinowski (University of Wrocław) will speak on the topic of "Tomasz Dunin Szpot S.J., (1644/45–1713), Historiographer of Jesuit Missions in China, and His Times." November 25, 2025 | 9:00 – 10:00 AM. Reach out to iajs@bc.edu to register for this event.

Poster for Gosciwit Malinowski's (University of Wrocław) talk "Tomasz Dunin Szpot S.J., (1644/45–1713), Historiographer of Jesuit Missions in China, and His Times."

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social A few more photos from our scroll, Shizi chongxun 十字寵勳. We have since found out that a similar scroll was printed at the T'ou-sè-wè 土家灣 orphanage in Shanghai in 1929. This reproduction has not allowed us to determine with certainty that they are identical.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

The Institute's copy of Qinding shujing tushuo 欽定書經圖說, an illustrated edition of the Documents Classic, published at the Qing imperial palace in 1905. The book is lithographically printed in two colors, black and red. We're planning to post more pictures from this book later.

Details of Qinding shujing tushuo 欽定書經圖說.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social Sanhe shengyu 三合聖諭, the Qing-dynasty Sacred edict in the three languages Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese. Our book dates from the mid-19th century.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

This is the Gospel of Matthew in Romanized Hakka Chinese, translated by the German missionary Rudolf Lechler and published in 1860. Hakka is one of the seven major Chinese dialect groups, primarily in the southeastern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

This Gospel of John, published in 1853, contains the text in the Shanghai dialect of Chinese, written using the Latin alphabet. This little book has an explanatory introduction and vocabulary by the British scholar James Summers (Sang Moshi 桑莫士 1828-1891). Acquired in 2025.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

@ricciinstitutelib.bsky.social This scroll contains a Qing-period, hand-colored woodblock print titled "Shizi chongxun" 十字寵勳. It offers a fascinating glimpse into cultural exchanges in late 19th-century China and shows Christ on the cross revered by a unified audience of various ethnicities.

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Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History @bcricciinstitute.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

The inscription above the Ricci Institute entrance: "Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord." The phrase is a truncation of a Latin translation of Psalm 119:1. Shot on film by a staff member.

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