ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is the result of a long intellectual journey that also involved a number of physical displacements. Like any traveler, I relied on many people who acted as guides, hosts, or travel mates. I would like to express my gratitude to all of them, even if space only allows for mentioning a few of them by name.
I had the fortune to be supported by highly knowledgeable and very generous guides. I would like to thank Christian Windler and Sabine Dabringhaus, who accompanied the book from the initial idea to the final manuscript and provided intellectual guidance and practical advice all along the way. Nicolas Standaert and Eugenio Menegon pushed me hard to think about Chinese Catholicism from a women’s perspective. Their memorable workshop “The Materiality of Chinese-Western Relations” held in Leuven in 2014 provided me with valuable inputs in a crucial phase of the book’s making.
People in many places helped make the journey easier and more fruitful. In Zurich, Wolfgang Behr and Stefan Bumbacher helped to improve my skills in Classical Chinese. Chen Yunü and Chien Jui-yao warmly welcomed me and enthusiastically supported my project during a research stay in Tainan. Christoph Riedweg, his staff, and the membri at the Istituto Svizzero di Roma made my research stay in Rome an intellectually stimulating and socially enjoyable experience. Arndt Brendecke and the staff of the Chair of Early Modern History of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität helped to make Munich the perfect place for completing the manuscript. Renate Dürr, Jon Mathieu, Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, and Antonella Romano gave me the opportunity to discuss the project in their seminars. My thanks also go to my colleagues in the Department of Early Modern History at the University of Bern and in the Department of East Asian History at the University of Freiburg—among them Andreas Affolter, Corina Bastian, Tilman Haug, Alexander Keese, Daniel Sidler, Sören Urbansky, Wang Shuo, and Philipp Zwyssig—for many inspiring conversations and comforting words.
Much of this book’s journey was taking place in my mind while I was sitting in reading rooms of libraries and archives: the Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, the Archivio Storico della S. Congregazione “De Propaganda Fide,” and the Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede in Rome; the Biblioteca da Ajuda in Lisbon; the East Asian Library of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. In all these institutions, I received the help of knowledgeable and friendly staff. My numerous research stays were made possible by the Swiss National Science Foundation, which granted generous material support from 2011 to 2014.
When the journey drew to a close, Peter Brett and Samuel Weber helped to correct the errors and clumsiness of my English. Stefan Rebenich and Ronald G. Asch read the manuscript and asked critical and thought-provoking questions. Henrietta Harrison offered valuable advice when I started thinking about publishing. Lorri Hagman and Niccole Coggins from the University of Washington Press helped me navigate through the publication process. Two anonymous readers provided helpful comments on the manuscript.
My deepest debt of gratitude is to my family. My parents, Veronika and Roland Amsler, always encouraged me to follow my inner compass and provided loving and often very hands-on support. It is to them that I dedicate this book. Nadir Weber has been my travel mate for many years. It is impossible to say how much I owe to his emotionally supporting and intellectually challenging companionship. Clearly, this book would not have come into being without him. Our children, Valentin and Philomena, keep us busy and teach us the essentials of life. They remind us that it is for the generations to come that historians ponder over times past.