The Tartar Moment

The Tartar Moment argues that mid-seventeenth-century Europeans—afflicted by geopolitical, social, intellectual, and environmental crises—turned to China for solutions. By rearticulating the upheavals surrounding the Manchu conquest of Ming China—a “Tartar moment”—in European terms, the Jesuit missionary Martino Martini marketed the Middle Kingdom’s knowledge as offering strategies for navigating his own continent’s manifold crises.

The book is forthcoming in Spring 2027 with the University of Chicago Press.

A painted portrait of the Jesuit missionary Martino Martini (1614-61). He is wearing a red hat and has a long black beard.

Portrait of Martino Martini S. J. (1614-61), painted by the Walloon artist Michaelina Wautier in 1654.

Portrait of the Ming literature Xu Guangqi

Portrait of the Ming era literatus, philosopher, and Christian convert Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), who was heavily involved in reforming the Chinese calendar under the Chongzhen Emperor.

A 17th century book open across two pages, showing Martini's 1655 general map of China. All of the then-Qing Empire is shown in the map. The top left corner shows a box with well-dressed figures and the text "Imperii Sinarum Nova Descriptio"

Martini's general map of China from Novus Atlas Sinensis (Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu, 1655)

Martini's hometown of Trento, the southernmost Prince-Bishopric of the (German-speaking) Holy Roman Empire, and one of the northernmost Italian-speaking cities in the seventeenth-century

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse