Historia Societatis Iesv,

authore Nicolao Orlandino, Societatis eiusdem sacerdote. Nunc primum in Germania in lucem edita. Accessit index rerum memorabilium locupletissimus. Coloniæ Agrippinæ : Sumptibus Antonij Hierat, Anno M. DC. XV. [Cologne : Antonius Hierat, 1615]

Quarto, contemporary vellum over boards with manuscript title in ink to spine; pp [viii], 578, [42 index]; pages 89, 268, 365, 488, 496 misnumbered 98, 262, 356, 438, 469 respectively; title page with vignette woodcut of the Jesuit device; woodcut historiated initials and tail-pieces; side notes; includes a prefatory letter written by Francesco Sacchini, dated Nov. 1, 1614; browned throughout, but a sound copy in contemporary binding.

The second edition of Orlandini’s monumental history of the Society of Jesus, first published in Rome earlier in the same year, 1615. According to Streit, this work has remained, even into the modern era, the most important record of the early history of the Jesuits. Arranged in sixteen books, it includes biographies of the early Jesuits and detailed accounts of their missions in India, Japan, the East Indies and the Americas, up to the death of Ignatius. The Historia was augmented in further editions after 1620, Sacchini extending the chronology up to 1590 and later writers to 1632.

Nicolo Orlandini (1553-1606) taught rhetoric and composition in Jesuit colleges in both Naples and Rome, and was one of a group of academics responsible for ensuring that the teaching of the humanities became integral to the Jesuit pedagogical vision.

Streit, I, p. 355; Alden, 615.69; Borba de Moraes, 634; de Backer-Sommervogel, 1935