De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Iesu.

ex P. Matthaei Ricii eiusdem Societatis com[m]entarijs Libri V : ad S.D.N. Paulum V. in quibus Sinensis Regni mores, leges atque instituta & nouae illius Ecclesiae difficillima primordia accurate & summa fide describuntur. Lyon : Horace Cardon, 1616. Quarto (235 x 170 mm), contemporary limp vellum (upper cover with small loss at bottom corner), spine with early manuscript title and shelf mark; engraved title-leaf by Wolfgang Kilian, with nineteenth-century ownership stamp in red ‘Bibliotheque economique [Lasteyrie]’, the library of Charles Philibert du Saillant, with associated shelf marks in ink at upper and lower margins; pp. [16], 628, [9 index], [1 colophon, which reads: ‘Lugduni, Ex Typographeio Ionnis Iullieron, anno 1616’ as in other copies], [2 blank]; one folding woodcut and letterpress plate; fore- and bottom edges a little roughly trimmed, some pale marginal water staining to last 40 or so leaves, otherwise clean throughout; a very good example, with the small ex libris label of H. P. Kraus to front pastedown.

Second Latin edition of Ricci’s history of the Jesuit mission in China (the first having been printed in Augsburg in 1615), containing important descriptions of Chinese manners, customs and laws. The work was edited by fellow missionary Nicolas Trigault, who augmented his own translation of the Italian manuscript original of Ricci’s diary with other writings by Ricci, as well as an account of Ricci’s death and burial.

Cordier, Sinica, 809; De Backer & Sommervogel VIII, 239; Streit V, 2095.