Relacion del sucesso que tuuo Nuestra Santa Fe en los reynos del Iapon desde el año de seyscientos y

doze hasta el de seyscientos y quinze, imperando Cubosama … compuesta por el padre Luys Piñeyro, de la Compañia de Iesus. En Madrid : por la viuda de Alonso Martin de Balboa, 1617. Folio, contemporary vellum with manuscript title in ink to spine (ties perished); ex libris of Florencio Gavito, viscount of Alborada and Villarubio, 1882-1960, to front pastedown; title with woodcut royal coat of arms and a faint contemporary ownership inscription, old collection stamp erased at lower right; pp. [16], 516, [8]; woodcut initials; text in double columns with double-ruled border; separate titles for each of the five parts; a very good copy.

The first edition of Piñeyro’s history of the Jesuit mission in Japan in the turbulent years from 1612 to 1615. The work is divided into five parts, four of which are devoted to a lengthy account of the persecution of the Christians in Japan and the consequences of Shogun Ieyasu’s Expulsion Edict of 1614. Piñeyro provides descriptions of the martyrdoms that took place and details of Jesuit property that was either seized or abandoned. Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun, issued his edict in January, 1614. It not only enforced the expulsion of Christians and foreigners; it also proscribed the practice of the Christian religion by the Japanese converts, known as Kirishitans. Portuguese Macau and Spanish Manila became the safe havens sought by both Europeans and Kirishitans alike. The situation of the Jesuit missionaries in Japan had been tenuous throughout the last phase of the Warring States period, particularly from the second half of the 1580s, but the Jesuits – largely through the foresight and guidance of Alessandro Valignano – had managed not only to remain in Japan and practise their religion, but also to convert significant numbers of Japanese to Christianity through the establishment of schools and the dissemination of scriptural material and other proselytizing works printed on their mission press in Nagasaki.

Cordier, BJ, 290; Palau, 226932: ”Very rare.”