Lettera annale delle cose del Giapone del M. D. LXXXII.

Rome : Francesco Zannetti, 1585. Octavo, early full vellum,, spine with raised bands, ruled and lettered in gilt; pp. 118; title with woodcut Jesuit device; stamp from the Casa Professa to title leaf a fine copy.

A slightly expanded edition of the Lettera annale, the annual report from Japan on missionary progress during the year 1581. Authored by Jesuit Father Gaspar Coelho, the report itself (pp. 1-103) contains valuable information on traditional Japanese customs and institutions, including an account of a visit to the Imperial court.

The annual report was printed in several editions in Milan (earliest edition?), Rome, Venice and elsewhere, in Italian, Latin, German and French. However, the present 118-page Rome edition includes an extra report by Alessandro Valignano:

‘This is almost the same as the Lettera annale, but with a very slightly different title-page. It contains Gaspar Coelho’s Annual Letter of 1581, written in Nagasaki 長崎 and dated Feb. 13 [15], 1582 (pp. 1-103). This is bound together with A. Valignano’s report on the martydom of five Jesuits in India, the same as the above mentioned book (see the Lettera annale).’ (Laures Kirishitan Bunko Database).

Cordier, Japonica, 78; Streit 1636.