Stephan Rothlin

　　This double issue of the Macau Ricci Institute Journal 14 and 15 attempts to capture a few glimpses of an extremely rich and demanding reflection on significant changes in the Middle Kingdom of the Yuan Dynasty which relate to the iconic name of Marco Polo whose death some 700 years ago was widely remembered in different parts of the world especially in China and in Italy. A new battle cry provoked many people and cultures to step into the footsteps of the great Venetian traveler namely: you need to come and see it to believe it. Far away countries and cultures no longer seemed just exotic and basically out of reach. A new threshold was crossed: not only missionaries and businesspeople, to some degree anyone with sufficient resources could embark to discover firsthand what cultures and people looked like. In the first part of this issue the reader is challenged to an historical-ethical inquiry into the significance of Marco Polo.

　　A considerable challenge is involved in grasping the importance of the fundamental leap which occurred in the so-called “early modern” period of the 13th century. Marco Polo’s ventures must be understood in this wider context, as Ingeborg Gabriel explains in a comprehensive way. Culture is a distillation of the human spirit, whereby people in a certain space realize their values. Of course, no culture is an island but part of a universal humanity. Cultural exchange therefore constitutes a central as well as enriching feature of cultures. Relations between East and West have been marred by conflicts, but they have also brought forth fruitful interaction, when the technical means for travel and communication allowed for it. The age of Marco Polo, the so-called High Middle Ages, marks the first period of these contacts. At that time cultural changes took place in the West, which strongly influence developments to this day. For this reason, the period has been called the epoch of Early Modernity. Three of the innovative transformations are featured: a new relation with the material world which led to the development of the natural sciences and technology, as well as economics and trade; a new civic culture, first evident in Italian cities and then throughout Europe, based on deliberation and cooperation. These two transformations in turn were based on an enhanced understanding of the individual as imago Dei (image of God) with his/her specific capabilities, liberty and responsibility. Thus, the time brought forth a sense of humanist and fraternal universalism as the ground on which bridges between cultures and religions can be built. Pope Francis’ made this the central theme of his encyclical Fratelli tutti (2020).