Spatial mobilities and conceptual immobilities

Abstract

Starting from the concepts, “proximities and immobilities”, we reflect upon and analyze the writing of two Italian missionaries who moved between the ‘Cinquecento’ and ‘Seicento’ where special mobility (territorial expansion of the Catholic orb) and conceptual immobility (fascination, suspicion and fear of the new) converge. We concentrate on the writings of Alessandro Valignano through his missionary manual and Matteo Ricci’s letters as they proceed to decipher alterities by means of the conceptualization of “the barbarian” and the language of “others”.