Lettere dell’ India Orientale,

scritte a’reverendi Padri della Compagnia di Giesù. Nelle quali si scopre la grande arte usata da gli istessi, per liberar l’anime de gli infideli Indiani dalla potesta del nimico infernale, & ridurle alla nostra sant fede. Novamente stampate, & ampliate in molti luoghi, & ricorrette con diligenza. Venice : Antonio Ferrari, 1580. Duodecimo, contemporary limp vellum; original endpapers; pp. [8], 342 (i.e. 336), [4] (last 3 blank); woodcut printer’s device to title and to recto of the first rear blank, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces; a very good example, housed in a cloth chemise and morocco and cloth slipcase.

First edition of this early and important collection of letters by Jesuit missionaries in the East (and Brazil). The work contains 25 letters written between 1553 and 1577. Of these, 11 are reports on the situation in China and Japan. The Japan letters include lengthy missives by Luís Frois and Luís de Almeida, and five by Francisco Cabral. Other letters are from Giovanni di Beira in Cochin, Organino da Brescia at Goa, Christoforo-d’Acosta at Malaca, Luigi di Govea at Coulan, Emanuel Tesseira at Goa, Nicola Nunez of Ternate, Pietro Mascaregnas of Ternate, Sebastiano Fernandez of Goa, Martino di Silva of Onor, Girolamo Buiz of Cochin, Pietro Diaz of Madeira, Francesco Henrico of Brazil, Vescovo Carnero in China, and Gomez Vaz of Goa.

Cordier, BJ, 73; Alt-Japan, 803

Provenance:

H. P. Kraus, New York

Richard B. Arkway, New York

private collection, Tokyo