Histoire de l’eglise du Japon.

Paris : François Montalant, 1715. Two volumes, quarto, uniform contemporary mottled calf (expertly rebacked, repairs to head caps), spines in compartments with contrasting title and volume labels and gilt decoration; edges stained red; original marbled endpapers; pp. [28], 659 [i.e. 657], [11]; [10], 678, [6]; with a total of 8 copper-engraved plates (one folding) and one woodcut in the text, illustrating monuments, costumes, views, and scenes of persecution; engraved head- and tailpieces, initials; scattered browning and light spotting, a very good set.

The second edition of Crasset’s history of the Jesuit Mission in Japan. (Another issue of the second edition was also published in Paris in 1715, by Estienne Papillon). The first edition had appeared in 1689.

Jean Crasset (1618-1692), a theologian of the Jesuit order, recounts in this work the various obstacles encountered by the first missionaries in Japan and provides valuable information on the laws, customs, and religion of the country. Crasset drew heavily on Solier’s Histoire ecclesiastique des îles et royaumes du Japon, published in 1627, and on the letters of the Jesuit fathers.

Cordier, BJ, 400; De Backer/Sommervogel II, 1641; Laures, 577; Streit VI, 1418