A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552-1610, R, Po-Chia Hsia (Oxford University Press, 2012, first published in hardback, 2010) xvi, 359pp., paperback, £40.00, ISBN 978 0 19 959225 8 (hardback), £19.99, ISBN 978 0 19 965653 0 (paperback)

The author is known and respected as an expert on the social and cultural exchanges between China and the West; he is Professor at Pennsylvania State University and author of a dozen books.  Ricci, a 16^th century Italian, founded the Catholic mission in China and is highly regarded 400 years later.  He bridged the Counter-Reformation in Europe and China in the Ming dynasty.  This is the first critical biography which uses the relevant sources to record Ricci's life from his Italian childhood to his sojourn in Portuguise India and his long journey in China which brought about the synthesis of Christianity and Confucianisn in preparing the Gospels.

The book is generously supplied with figures, plates and maps, a Chinese glossary, a differentiated bibliography which includes articles, theses and monographs from America, Europe and China, notes and index.  It is likely to stand as a classic study for a long time and is a remarkable story, rivetingly told.