Beijing, China. Jesuit Matteo Ricci dies. His tomb is still venerated. He bore the Chinese name of Li Madou, meaning “the sage from the West.” Father Ricci continued Marco Polo’s work, but on a different level: a multi-talented intellectual, a formidable math expert, exceptionally curious, and possessing extraordinary learning abilities. He translated Confucius into Latin. Two other Jesuit scientists, Father Rho and Father Schall, later came to lend him support, bringing with them the works of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. Father Schall was also awarded the title of Mandarin for having accurately predicted the 1645 eclipse, which calculations based on Chinese models had missed by half an hour and those based on Islamic models by an hour.
