Sabatino de Ursis

Born in Lecce, Apulia, Sabatino de Ursis arrived in 1607 in Beijing, in order to help Matteo Ricci with astronomical research.

De Ursis is famous for having predicted an eclipse, which had not been foretold by traditional Chinese astronomers, on December 15, 1610.

In 1612, Sabatino translated orally a work by Agostino Ramelli on hydraulic mechanisms, which was put into Chinese by Xú Guāngqĭ.

In 1616, dislike of the Jesuits led to a persecution of Christians at the instigation of Shen Que (Shěn Què, 沈㴶, vice minister of rites in Nanking, d. 1624), and de Ursis was expelled to Macau, where he died in 1620: "Presently the people have cleansed their doors [of Christian symbols].

His only concern is that those who are far [removed from Nanjing] (i.e. living in Beijing) will not understand the actual situation and will continue to be deceived by the trivial learning [of Westerners] in Mathematics (shushu zhi xiaozhi).