Along the Silk Roads, between Western and Eastern Asia

Overview & Synopsis

This volume collects the proceedings of the concluding conference in Turin of the SERICA project and hosts the contributions of 20 scholars on topics related to cultural contact between East and West from classical antiquity to the 19th century, mainly from a literary and linguistic perspective, which does not neglect some examples of material culture (books and artifacts; inscriptions). Examining the dynamics of cultural encounters along the Silk Roads, the volume focuses on different periods and authors. The division into four sections mirrors such a difference: the first part highlights some case studies pertaining to the classical world (mainly Indo-Iranian and Greco-Roman); the second section discusses some relevant figures of the ‘Jesuit century’, including non-Jesuit scholars and academic debates up to the 19th century; the third part is concentrated on philosophical texts, outlining the reception of Aristotle in China and presenting the first Latin translations of some Chinese classics; finally, the last section deals with some new perspectives obtained by exploiting digital resources. Thanks to the high profile of the scholars, the volume represents a significant progress in the comparative studies.