Print from Kircher's China Monumentis representing Matteo Ricci with Ly Paulus (Xu Guangqi) standing in front of an altar surmounted with a cross and a picture of the Virgin and Child.

Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) was an Italian Jesuit missionary to China who became the court mathematician in Peking. He introduced Western mathematics to China and translated mathematical books into Chinese. He became the first to translate the Confucian classics into Latin. His books 'Geometrica Practica' and 'Trigonometrica' were translations of Christopher Clavius' works into Chinese. In 1584 and 1600, he published the first maps of China ever available to the West.

Xu Guangqi (1562–1633) was a Chinese bureaucrat, agricultural scientist, astronomer, and mathematician of the Ming Dynasty. Following his meeting with Ricci, Paulo converted to Christianity and was baptised Paulus in 1604.