China has bulked large in the imagination of the Catholic Church for 500 years. It had been central to the missionary dream of the Jesuits for almost as long. However, only with this book's appearance has the detailed focus of attention shifted to the substantial and neglected period of catholic and Jesuit engagement with china - the almost 120 years from the second arrival of the Jesuits. Matteo Ricci the polymath, Ferdinand Verbeist and Adam Schall...