Historians have emphasized that the multinational character of the Society of Jesus and its proselytization goals, which operated within the framework of the European colonial enterprises, led Jesuits to establish a transcontinental network that facilitated the circulation of information and enabled them to play a crucial role as mediators between different cultures. Nevertheless, in order to fully understand these cultural relationships in a more balanced way, avoiding taking them in some unidirectional and linear perspective, it is crucial to focus on the different local traditions of scientific knowledge, practices and needs. In fact, local constraints explained, for example, the reason why some European astronomical novelties experienced some difficulties in being accepted by the East Asian literati while others not. The notion of celestial solidity, which collided with the foundations of Chinese cosmological thought, is a case in point. Because of the critical importance of local contexts, early-modern Jesuits felt a strong need to survey local cosmological conceptions and worldviews. This paper focuses on one such case, the missionary João Rodrigues, who included notions of Chinese and Japanese astronomy and astrology in his history of Japan. This paper will analyze those notions and reports on the local cosmological views and discuss to what extent they might be instrumental in planning future missionary activities.

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Jesuítas,Cosmologia,João Rodrigues