Abstract: A figure of modern sinology, Matteo Rico is the author of an Italian œuvre which is still poorly known today. This work offers a reading of Ricci's works as the mystic and aesthetic anatomy of an encounter with inculturation, a new language for distant alterity.
Keyword: Littérature de la Renaissance, âge classique, Matteo Ricci, inculturation, littérature jésuitique, histoire des missions chrétiennes de Chine, représentation littéraire de la rencontre, apologétique chrétienne, littérature de voyage