This work treats the history of the "Collegium Sinicum" in Naples (founded by Matteo Ripa in the 1720s) and its transformation into an Oriental Institute in the middle of the nineteenth century. Most of the book is devoted to this latter subject. The book contains some useful addenda, especially the list of Chinese who came to this college in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (including their Chinese names, year of birth, arrival, ordination, departure, place and date of death).
