Johann Schreck: Galileo's Friend in China
How did knowledge spread in Galileo’s world?
Johann Schreck joined the Jesuit order in 1611, the same year that he used Galileo's telescope to observe the satellites of Jupiter. Upon becoming a Jesuit, Schreck joined the Jesuit mission in China, taking with him a scientific library of approximately 7,000 volumes as well as a Galilean telescope. Schreck's story is the beginning of a century-long exchange of scientific ideas between Europe and Asia.
Japanese Samurai manuscripts (objects 17-20)
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Orion: Baba, Nobutake (1706)
This work, written by a Kyoto physician, represents Asian astronomy in the generation following Adam Schall. Baba countered superstitious interpretations of solar eclipses, and used magnetic theory rather than yin and yang to explain the tides. Baba adopted the Tychonic model of cosmology. His book exemplifies the circulation of knowledge in East Asia and the interplay between Asian and European ideas.
Matteo Ricci, De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas (Lyon, 1616), ed. Nicolaus Trigault.
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Ethiopian Bible (c. 1800 (?))
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Nasir ad-Din al-Tusi (pseudo-Tusi), Kitab tahrir usul l-Uqlidus (Rome, 1594)
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Johann Schreck, Ensei kiki zusetsu rokusai (Japan, 1830).
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Adam Schall, Historica narratio, de initio et progressu missionis apud Chinenses (Vienna, 1665).
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Johann Hevelius, Selenographia (Gdansk, 1647)
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Athanasius Kircher, China monumentis (Amsterdam, 1667)
