Text/Translation begins on p. [39]: Commento e immagini dell Incarnazione del Signore del Cielo = 天主降生出像經解 Tianzhu jiangsheng chuxiang jingjie. Traduzione e note di Lu Huizhong e Huang Xiu Feng. "con riproduzione anastatica del testo conservato presso AFIO (Archivo Franciscano Ibero Orientale) di Madrid 26/2".

Indice: Presentazione / Antonio Fappani. Verso la pienezza de verità e amore / Luciano Monari. Prefazione / Pier Francesco Fumagalli. Avvertenze e ringraziamenti. Introduzione / Gianfranco Cretti. Giulio Aleni e la Prospettiva in Cina / Hui-Hung Chen. Prefazione / Giulio Aleni. Mappa di Gerusalemme / Giulio Aleni. Sante Immagini della Incarnazione del Signore del Cielo / Giulio Aleni. Indice delle Immagini. Indice dei nomi di luoghi e persone. Nota bibliografica.

"[Tianzhu jiangsheng yanxing jilüe 天主降生言行紀略] supplemented by his Tianzhu jiangsheng yanxing jingjie (1637). This work of fifty-five pictures of Jesus’ life was based on Jerónimo Nadal’s (1507-1580) Evangelicae Historiae Imaginese (Antwerp, 1593), which was often included in Nadal’s Adnotationes et Meditationes in Evangeliae (Antwerp, 1595), a meditative commentary on the Sunday readings by a famous companion of Ignatius of Loyola. Aleni’s work, however, is not a translation of Nadal’s commentary, but a Chinese adaptation of Vita Christi by Ludophus de Saxonia (ca. 1300-1378). His Vita Christi e Quatuor Evangeliis et Scriptoribus Orthodoxis Concinnata was a very popular writing during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.....In this they [Jesuits] gave preference to a chronological presentation of Jesus’ life rather than to the translation of the four gospels..." Cf. Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China, vol. 1, p. 622-623.

"....By this extensive sinicisation da Rocha’s picture show an interesting contrast with the second collection of Christian wood-block prints: the 55 pictures – all based on Nadal - in Tianzhu jiangsheng chuxiang jingjie天主降生出像經解 (Illustrated Explanation of the Lord of Heaven’s Incarnation), first published in 1637 in Jinjiang (Quanzhou) by Giulio Aleni.....The difference in style is quite marked: in Aleni’s xylographs the European linear perspective and the narrative combination ...... have been maintained. There are interesting Chinese adaptations as regards form... and content....but as a whole these woodblock prints render the Western originals faithfully." Cf. Cf. Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China, vol. 1, p. 813.

Dig.ed. local access only. [AleniCommento.pdf]