IMPORT AND EXPORT OF IDEAS, BELIEFS AND TASTES IN WORLD HISTORY: THE CASE OF CONFUCIUS IN 18 TH CENTURY ITALY 1 PAOLO SANTANGELO (Sapienza University of Rome) Fig. 1. Original score, Act I, L’Eroe Cinese, music by Cimarosa, Pietro Metastasio librettist The 18 th century is a key century in European history, and scholars are debating if it can be considered so relevant and ‘transitional’ also in world history. So far discussions have been focused on the concepts of early modernity, pre-modernity, and proto-modernity. As far as Chinese history is concerned, the debate has concentrated in particular on the issue of periodisation and whether it is accurate to talk of ‘early modern’ or ‘late imperial China.’ More generally, the term ‘modernity’ has been the very object of discussion, especially with concerning the question of whether it was the result of a secularisation process rooted in the Judaic-Christian legacy or of the development of a sense of separation as retrospectively applied to an autochthonous tradition. 2 Undoubtedly, in Western 1 This article is the upgraded elaboration of a paper presented at Venice International University on 19 September 2015 (partially translated into Chinese in Shi Hualuo 2016, pp. 93-104). 2 The debate on modernity in Europe, its myth, and ideological aspects dates back to the 17th- 18 th -century controversy between philosophes and theologians. See the arguments raised by