Journal |
Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 61 | 2025 | Supplemento
Research Article | Inscriptions in Texts
Inscriptions in Texts
Epistemic Encounters in Giovanni Vacca’s Sinological Library
Abstract
This article considers texts in G. Vacca’s (1872‑1953) library as vertices in a sinological network. I analyse his annotations inscribed into books, offprints, maps, brochures, which he mainly collected during his sojourn in China (1907‑08). Focusing on mathematical books, I argue that inscriptions and printed texts together not only materialise Vacca’s turn from mathematics to sinology but also produce new forms of knowledge that resulted from translations between languages spoken in his network: Chinese, universal languages, and the languages of logic and algebra. Far from being an isolated stronghold of piles of paper transported from China to Europe and extended thereafter in scale and content, Vacca’s documentary legacy is a continuous space of circulation in itself.
Submitted: June 30, 2024 | Accepted: Jan. 14, 2025 | Published May 30, 2025 | Language: en
Keywords Translation • Spaces of circulation • Scientific terminologies • Mathematical symbolism • Agency
Copyright © 2025 Andrea Bréard. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2025/02/006
