Prof Eugenio Menegon Presents Twice in Italy

  • By: Elle Nicoletti
November 25, 2025: Symposium and unveiling of statue of Giulio Aleni, Jesuit missionary in China, Brescia Italy.

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Jesuit Giulio Aleni’s arrival in Fujian province (South China), the University of Brescia and the Fondazione della Civiltà Bresciana’s Centro Giulio Aleni organized the symposium “Giulio Aleni, a cultural bridge between Italy and China” on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. In the morning, a bronze bust of Giulio Aleni was unveiled at the Padre Giulio Aleni Park in Brescia. Over thirty years ago, Professor Eugenio Menegon was one of the organizers of the 1994 Aleni symposium in Brescia that re-discovered this important cross-cultural figure. Menegon is the author of the first full biography of Aleni (Un solo cielo. Giulio Aleni S.J.  (1582-1649). Geografia, arte, scienza, religione dall’Europa alla Cina, Brescia: Grafo, 1994). He presented an historiographical appraisal of scholarship on Aleni in the last three decades.

November 26-28, 2025: Conference “Chinese Assistants, Collaborators and Cultural Intermediaries: Working with Westerners in Sino-Western Exchanges, 16th-20th centuries.”

Biographies of Westerners in China document their diplomatic, educational, and translation activities, but often neglect the crucial assistance they received from Chinese collaborators. Due to language barriers, Westerners relied heavily on Chinese teachers, interpreters, and translators who aided in producing instruments, astronomical devices, and publications. However, these Chinese helpers remain largely unrecognized in historical sources. Western intermediaries emphasized their own achievements to secure funding, while downplaying Chinese contributions. This conference, co-organized by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Boston University, and Washington University in St. Louis, addressed this problem by illuminating the diversity of Chinese collaborators who supported foreigners from the Ming dynasty to the 20th century. Professor Menegon was one of the co-organizers and presenters of this event, held at his alma mater in Italy.

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