 |
 |
|
The Ricci Institute’s collection includes rare books and art from the West’s exchange with China in the 16th and 18th centuries.
|
Ricci Institute Quietly Goes About its Work
Unknown to most of the USF campus, the Ricci Institute at the rear of Lone Mountain’s Del Santo Reading Room is a quiet enclave of scholars and staff who between them are compiling one of the world’s most notable collections of Chinese-Western books and specialized research.
The subject they’re studying is the West’s cultural exchange with China in the 16th and 18th centuries, with a focus on Christianity. Started in 1984 by the late Edward Malatesta, S.J. at the University of San Francisco, the center’s roots actually go back hundreds of years to when Matteo Ricci, one of the first Jesuit scholars to take up residence in China, sparked a rich Christian tradition there. In its nearly 20 years, the Ricci Institute has managed to grow into a nexus of study around the exchange Ricci started, with a varying group of visiting international scholars and the support of a small but influential group of people—including Henry Luce III, whose grandfather was a missionary to China and whose family co-founded Time magazine.
The institute was recently granted $110,000 from The Henry Luce Foundation to support more visiting scholars’ work and for the development of institute programming. To date, the institute has received $1 million from the foundation.
“We’re doing something very special and yet we’re attracting a lot of attention,” said Xiaoxin Wu, director of the institute. “I think it’s because it fits right into the mission of USF and secondly because it addresses a fundamental issue, which is cross-cultural communication and understanding. There are a lot of people in this country with ties to people in Asia and the ties are getting stronger.”
The institute not only supports scholars’ work and helps publish their books, its historical specialty gives it opportunities for a wide range of programming. For example, the institute funded a two-year study by Evelyn Eaton and James D. Whitehead on the development of a personal spirituality among China’s emerging middle class. Last year, the institute sponsored lectures on an art historian’s work uncovering the mystery of a Chinese painting, and M. Antoni J. Üçerler, S.J.’s research on how the Jesuits introduced a moveable-type press to Japan. The institute’s book collection is comprised of more than 80,000 volumes, including rare Chinese and European books; a collection of paintings, maps, and other artifacts; and a Web-based database of information contributed to by scholars around the world.
“We have contacts from Mexico to Sweden to, of course, China. Because our field is so small, people know each other. The Ricci Institute serves as a bridge for this core group of scholars,” said Monica Chang, assistant director of the institute.
The institute is the research arm of USF’s Center for the Pacific Rim and is supported by endowments, grants, and annual gifts. “I hope we will be able to provide more service to the university and the local communities and get more people interested on campus and beyond,” Wu said. “It gives us a special niche to be part of a university and I hope it will give us more opportunities to promote cultural understanding through new voices and new approaches to our subject.” 
|
