Dell’ Historia della Compagnia di Giesv : l’Asia

In Roma, M.DC.LIII. Nella Stamperia d’Ignatio de’ Lazzeri. [Rome : Ignazio de’ Lazzeri, 1653-1663]

Folio, contemporary vellum over boards, spine with raised bands, manuscript title in ink and manuscript label with collection number “1692”; front pastedown with nineteenth century label of the Fürstlich Auerspergische Fideikommissbibliothek, Laibach; pp [iv], 904, [8]; engraved frontispiece by Bloemaert after a drawing by Miele, depicting figures representing the nations of Asia showing a map of China to Francis Xavier (front cover illustration), early ownership inscriptions at upper and lower margins dated 1655; title page with engraved printer’s device incorporating the Jesuit trigram; head-pieces; side notes; small amount of worming to margins, touching on a few letters; a good copy with wide margins in a contemporary binding.

The first edition of the first part of this three-part work on Jesuit missionary activities in Asia by the Ferrarese Danielo Bartoli, printed by the Jesuit press of Ignazio de’ Lazzeri. The work is regarded as the most comprehensive seventeenth century survey of its kind and was printed in three parts by Lazzeri and Varese in Rome between 1653 and 1663 (the third part has the imprint of Varese, 1663). This first part of Bartoli’s magnum opus deals with Asia in general, and is divided into eight books; the subsequent volumes covered Japan and China, respectively, in greater detail.

Cordier, Japonica, 373-374, Sinica, 785-786; de Backer-Sommervogel, I, 970