Paper short abstract:

Laelius De Amiticia was written by Cicero in the 1st century B.C. This small book about friendship has been the fount of many authors throughout the centuries. In the 16th century the Portuguese André Rodrigues Eborense and the Italian Matheus Ricci were also inspired by this Roman work.

Paper long abstract:

In 44 B. C. Cicero wrote Laelius De Amicitia. Since Roman times and throughout the centuries, this little work about friendship has inspired many authors in different perspectives, either as a whole or divided in small sentences, called sententiae, which could be organized in anthologies on the theme of friendship. In the 16th century the Portuguese André Rodrigues Eborense (1498-1573) prepared two anthologies of sententiae and, among other classical works, he used Laelius De Amicitia for the theme of friendship. These two Portuguese works would be the fount of inspiration for Matheus Ricci, S. J. (1552-1610), to write his book On friendship in Chinese, as a gift to the Chinese Prince Jian'an, Qian Zhai.

In this paper we aim to study the common sententiae used first by Cicero and used later by André Rodrigues Eborense and Matheus Ricci, S. J., in different times and in different social contexts as one of the highest human and universal values between two human beings.