Relazione del martirio de’ Padri F. Pietro Martire Sans … F. Francesco Serrano … F. Giovanni Alcober, F. Giovacchino Royo, e F. Francesco Diaz dell’ Ord de’ Pred. Accaduto nella Provincia di Fokien nell Impero della Cina negli anni 1747 e 1748.

Rome : Girolamo Mainardi, 1752. First edition. Octavo, contemporary calf-backed decorated boards (darkened and a little worn); front pastedown with early Jesuit library label; title-page with woodcut vignette; pp. 483; early repair to bottom margin of title, scattered light spotting, a very good copy.

A collection of texts relating to the martyrdoms of the five Spanish Dominican missionaries – Juan Alcober, Francisco Serrano, Francisco Diaz, Joachim Royo, and Pedro Sanz – which took place in China in 1747 and 1748. The compiler, Padre Gampietro (1706-1756), gives an account of his voyage from Venice to Macao in 1745, and includes a history of the Dominican missions there. The basis of the main part of the work is a 44-page pamphlet in Spanish published in Manila in 1746. Appended to Padre Gampietro’s work are a series of China missionary letters addressed to the head of the Dominican order, Antonin Brémond, which are reproduced in Latin with parallel Italian translations.

Cordier, Sinica, 1196