(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 18 - The Vatican is commemorating the extraordinary life of a 16th-century Italian mathematician and missionary who settled in China, with a new exhibition marking 400 years since his death. The event at the Vatican Museum pays tribute to Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), a Jesuit priest and academic who spent most of his adult life in China and eventually became a member of the court of Ming Emperor Wanli.

''Ricci was a bridge of dialogue and exchange between Europe and China,'' commented Msgr. Claudio Giuliodori, bishop of Ricci's native Macerata.

The exhibit celebrates ''his missionary genius, his spiritual and moral stature, his openness and his cultural farsightedness'', he said. Several 16th-century portraits of the missionary are on display in the exhibition, as well as scientific instruments, maps of the era and liturgical items. Also on show is the wooden matrix of Chinese characters sent by Ricci as a draft for a letter that Pope Sixtus V was meant to send to the Chinese emperor to open diplomatic relations. A painting by Peter Paul Rubens, The Miracles of St Ignatius of Loyola (1619), dominates a room devoted entirely to the Jesuits.

The event at the Vatican is one of a series of initiatives in coming months aimed at further celebrating the life of a man whom Pope Benedict XVI described as ''an intrepid and intelligent messenger''.

Capitalizing on interest, Msgr. Poliodoro has announced he is launching a campaign to push for Ricci's elevation to sainthood. Ricci studied mathematics and astronomy for several years in Rome, where he entered the Jesuit order, before setting out for the Far East in 1578 at the age of 26.

He spent four years in Goa on the west coast of India before travelling to China where he settled in Zhao Qing in the southernmost Guangdong Province and began studying Chinese.

It was during this period that the Jesuit priest produced his first global Great Map of Ten Thousand Countries, which revolutionized Chinese understanding of the rest of the world.

In 1589 he moved to Zhao Zhou and began sharing European mathematical ideas with Chinese scholars, winning renown for his extraordinary memory and knowledge of astronomy.

The reputation of Li Madou - as he was known in China - spread, and in 1601 he was finally allowed into the Forbidden City of Beijing, where he worked until his death in 1610.

During his life, the Jesuit sought to bridge the gap between Chinese and Italian cultures more by discussion of ethical and philosophical questions than by focusing on religion.

Today, Ricci's work is familiar to Chinese schoolchildren of all ages but Ricci has only recently become a familiar name in Italy.

Despite his reputation in China, the Catholic Church condemned him for heresy 100 years after his death and he was only rehabilitated by Pope Pius XII in 1939.

With the exception of his beatification in 1983, his memory has largely been neglected since then. However, two recent films and a successful exhibition in Rome have sparked a revival of popular interest in his extraordinary life.

The event at the Vatican Museum runs until January 24.