[TENSHŌ EMBASSY] Breve relatione del consistoro publico, dato àgli Ambasciadori Giapponesi : dalla buona memoria

della Santità di Papa Greg. XIIIj. in Roma, il dì 23. di Marzo 1585 : con l’arriuo fatto in Pisa, & la riceuuta fattagli da S.A.S. per tutto il suo felicissimo stato : et di nuouo baciati li piedi alla Santità di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto V. In Firenze : Dalle scalee di Badia, 1585. [Florence : Badia, 1585]. Small quarto, modern vellum over bevelled boards by Aquarius, spine with gilt lettered leather title label, ribbon ties; pp [8]; title page with woodcut printer’s device; woodcut historiated initials; a fine copy; at the rear, the specially designed binding accommodates a window-mount housing a bronze medal by Giovanni Federico Bonzagni, struck in 1585 to commemorate the visit of the Japanese delegation: obverse tonsured bust of Sixtus V left, wearing cope; reverse legend and date in six lines below cherub’s head, AB REGIBVS IAPONIOR PRIMA AD ROMA PONT LEGATIO ET OBEDIENTIA 1585; 39 mm; a fine example with deep brown patina.

The Breve relatione is the Italian translation of the official account of the Japanese embassy’s audience with Pope Gregory XIII, the Acta consistorii, published after Pope Sixtus V’s election (April 24, 1585). This is the rarest of the several Italian language editions published that year. Other editions were printed in Rome by Osmarino and Zanetti, respectively; in Florence by Tosia; and in Genoa.

We can locate only three other copies of the Florence edition (British Library; Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina, Rome; Biblioteca comunale, Treviso).

Cordier, BJ, 95; Boscaro, 17.

We can locate no copy offered for sale at auction in the last 100 years.