Alessandro Valignano S.I., Uomo del Rinascimento: Ponte tra Oriente e Occidente

Second only in importance to St. Francis Xavier, Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606) is one of the towering figures in the story of the Jesuit missions in Asia in the early-modern period. Born in Chieti to an aristocratic family and schooled in law at Padua, Valignano brought considerable intellectual and social status with him when, after joining the Society of Jesus, he was appointed Visitor (plenipotentiary inspector) to his order's Asian enterprises. His legacy was prodigious: Valignano devised the policy of "accommodation" by which the Jesuits would adapt themselves to the political and social norms of Japan and China to preach a Christianity that was not overburdened by European attributes. Absent colonial power, Valignano reasoned, the Jesuits had to adapt themselves to local circumstances, and so he gave the necessary orders to reshape the Japan mission and its incipient counterpart in China. Historians have lauded this insight as either the arrival of "the Renaissance" in Asia or a glimpse of "modern" tolerant attitudes before their time.

The latest generation of scholars is not the first group to find Valignano fascinating. In fact, much of the best work on him—whether analyses of his writings or the publication of his voluminous writings—was done between the 1940s and 1970s by the great Jesuit scholars Josef Franz Schütte and Josef Wicki. The massive tomes of the Documenta Indica and other key transcriptions published by the Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu not only reveal the figure of Valignano in lucid detail; they are also invaluable resources for the history of missionization and, more generally, the history of Asia. Given this pedigree and the importance of the subject, it therefore comes as a disappointment to see that the same publisher has produced this uneven volume of essays on Valignano.

This volume represents the proceedings of a conference that was held in Chieti on the 400th anniversary of Valignano's death in 2006. A combination of Italian and international scholars contributed articles in either Italian or English, and their work is divided into five sections: Introduction, The Man, The Missionary, The Writer, and The Inheritance. The articles focus primarily on Valignano's texts about Japan, but some mention in given to his presence in India, his efforts on behalf of the China mission, and his family connections in the Abruzzi region. Basic facts about his life, however, are repeated far too often in the volume. It does not appear that the conference organizers did much editing, since the articles do not have a strong sense of cohesion nor a uniform quality. While it is not surprising to find essays of uneven quality in such volumes, the variety in Alessandro Valignano is particularly marked.

There are nevertheless a few articles of note here. Paolo Aranha offers a way to understand Valignano's apparent racial bias for East Asian over South Asian and African peoples through the context of his encounters in those lands; Ubaldo Iaccarino and Pedro Lage Reis Correia present analyses of his reactions to the arrival (and martyrdom) of Spanish Franciscans in Japan; M. Antoni Üçerler and Jesús López-Gay analyze the main documents that Valignano wrote about Japan, the Sumario de las Cosas de Japón (1583) and the Principio y Progresso de la Religión Christiana en Japón (1603–04); and Marcello Valignani and Marisa di Russo present specific details about Valignano and his family relations in Italy. Valignano, however, deserves better, and it is hoped that this volume will not dissuade young scholars from delving into his rich legacy.