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It has been selected to be marked by the inaugural pipe organ recital given on the newly built monumental instrument installed in the Saint Joseph Seminary Chapel. Conceived in the same celebrative perspective looking both towards the past and the future, this section is enhanced by two complementary contributions. In the first, Gianni Criveller, currently based in Hong Kong, presents in great detail with historical explanations the cultural background of Matteo Ricci, that is “The Shaping of his Intellectual and Scientific Endowment”. His formative years were lived in the midst of the Italian Renaissance, during which Galileo Galilei dared write, centuries before Stephen Hawking, that “Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe.” Ricci did not stay long in Macau before entering China, but in the second presentation, Gary Ngai Mei Cheong, of the Macau Sino-Latina Foundation which he helped to establish, reflects on the role that Macau can continue to play in the world of today: it is fitting that the “harmony between civilisations” that is presented in this contribution may be considered part of Matteo Ricci’s legacy shared both by China and the West.
The Editor |
