Spiritual Sinology featuring Manuel Dias

A recent publication by the Jesuit Michele Ferrero, entitled Sinologia spirituale. Lettere (Immaginarie) dal medioveo ai tempi nostri di 50 missionari che amarono la Cina, Chapter 5 "Cambio di dinastia" contains a fictive letter by Manuel Dias, in which he provides his interpretation of China. This could be good material for the introduction. For details, see:

http://las.unisal.it/index.php?method=ecom&action=zoom&id=930

Other texts by Manuel Dias

Today I had a look at the last seven volumes of the recently published collection Chinese Christian Texts from the Library of France (Taipei: Ricci Institute, 2009), edited by Nicolas Standaert, Ad Dudink and Nathalie Monnet, and included in volume 23 there are two texts by Manuel Dias.

The first text, entitled Tang jingjiao beisong zhengquan, is an annotated presentation of the Nestorian monument found near Xian - this is an interesting (yet fragmentary) text because it has some information about the publishing procedure of Jesuit Chinese writings.

The second text carries the title Tianxue juyao (Crucial summary of Heavenly Studies) and is extremely interesting because it is a manuscript rather than a printed text. In fact, the manuscript looks like a preparatory version for a printed edition of the text. I also wonder to what extent this religious text contains references to astrononomy.