by Francesco Volpi
Despite the many years of cataloging of ancient books in the Casanatense Library and despite the fact that the already known heritage is rich in rare editions, one realizes with pleasure that the possibility of coming across texts of precious value that one was not aware of is always around the corner.
This fact certainly finds its origin in the control function that the Order of Preachers exercised on publications of all kinds,
from theology, of course, to scientific writings, and even to subjects such as architecture (for example, texts that speak of French palaces and monuments of the revolutionary era were certainly not well regarded, and were noted as forbidden to read). This has allowed, in more than a century and a half of activity of the Casanatensi librarian fathers, to put together varied and, at times, unique book collections.
And, speaking of happy and singular “rediscoveries”, an example of this is the Sinarum scientia politico-moralis by the Jesuit father Prospero Intorcetta (Piazza Armerina, 1625 – Hangzhou, 1696), who participated in the mission in China from 1659 to 1669, before returning there definitively in 1673 until his death.
The importance of the work, still recognized today (exhibited in 2006 at the National Museum of China for the exhibition Continente Sicilia: 5,000 years of history), consists in the fact that it contains the text that, for the first time, introduced Europeans to the philosophical thought of Confucius. Furthermore, to this day, there are very few copies in the world, a census of which will be found in the forthcoming publication by Professor Noel Golvers of the University of Louvain, A census of Prospero Intorcetta, Sinarum Scientia Politico-Moralis, to which I gave a small contribution regarding our copy.
Another peculiarity of the edition, for bibliology lovers: the text is composed of a first part printed in Canton (Guangzhou) in 1667 on very delicate rice paper, containing the partial translation with facing text in Chinese of the Confucian doctrine of the golden mean (Zhongyong); and of a second part, which gives information on the life of Confucius, printed in the European style, in Goa, on October 1, 1669.
Father Intorcetta, Yn-to-Ce, as he was called in China, returned to Italy in 1671 dressed like a Chinese sage (long flowing hair, headdress and fan, as depicted in the portrait by an anonymous artist preserved in the Municipal Library of Palermo), and in addition to the Casa Professa in Palermo, where he had grown up as a Sicilian Jesuit, he visited the Roman one in Piazza del Gesù, to which he donated a copy of his work, as attested by the ex dono authoris on the frontispiece.
And this is precisely the copy that we conserve today in Casanatense (CCC.O.I.11). But how did it get there? And here we return to our Dominican predecessors. Most likely, after the suppression of the Society of Jesus, which had already occurred in some parts of Europe and was ratified by Clement XIV with the brief Dominus ac Redemptor of 21 July 1773. Thanks to the role of preeminence mentioned above, but also, why not, to the sensitivity free from confessional prejudices of the prefects and librarians of Casanatense in evaluating the importance of a text, the Sinarum Scientia Politico-Moralis of the former Jesuit library became part, “ex tunc et in perpetuum”, of the Casanatense collection. In partial support of this hypothesis, we find Audiffredi’s Bibliothecae Casanatensis Catalogus Librorum Typis Impressorum (1761-1797), in which the work is listed in volume IV, which at least excludes the possibility that the volume entered the library after its publication.