Transnational Perspectives on the History of Technology

Through the contributions by Chinese and Italian scholars, this book offers readers an exploration of the historical exchanges, comparisons, and reciprocal influences between China and Italy in the realms of technology and knowledge.

It's widely acknowledged that ancient Rome and China independently developed distinct technological systems. Beginning in the 16th century, the arrival of missionaries in China facilitated a significant peak in direct interaction between these two systems. By the 19th century, the industrial Revolution and its global expansion ushered in a new era of technological and intellectual exchange between the two regions. This book complies case studies spanning these three historical period, encompassing carriage craftsmanship, distillation equipment, pharmaceutical metrology, railway engineering, robotics and heritage conservation. It either compares the technological developments of ancient Rome and China, examines the role and influence of Italian missionaries in technological and intellectual exchanges during 16th to 17th Centuries, or presents in-depth case studies on Sino-Italian cooperation in modern technological development and cultural heritage protection from the end of 19th Century to the present.