[TENSHŌ EMBASSY] Acta consistorii publice exhibiti a S.D.N. Gregorio Papa XIII. regum Iaponiorum legatis Romae,

die XXIII. Martii, M.D. LXXXV. Mediolani [Milan] : Apud Paulum Gottardum Pontium, & Besutios fratres, 1585. Quarto, later blue crushed morocco, upper board lettered and decorated in gilt, spine in compartments with gilt tooling, gilt dentelles; pp. 16; title with woodcut Jesuit device; woodcut initials; a superb copy.

The very rare Milan edition of the official account of Pope Gregory XIII’s reception of the first Japanese embassy to Europe, the so-called Tenshō Embassy. It has the same text as the Rome edition printed by Zanetti, and includes copies of three letters, dated January 1582, addressed to the Pope from the converted rulers of Bungo, Arima and Omura, which were presented by the Japanese envoys at the public audience; the text of the “Oratio” delivered on their behalf by Gaspar Gonsalves; and Antonio Boccapaduli’s response in the name of the Pope.

The embassy was an initiative of Alessandro Valignano, Visitador of Japan, and according to Boxer “fulfilled his double intention of attracting the attention of Christendom to the splendid progress the Jesuits were making in Japan, and of impressing the Japanese with the power and civilization of Catholic Europe.”

The Tenshō Embassy departed from Nagasaki in February 1582 and arrived in Lisbon in August 1584. It comprised four young envoys: Mansho Ito (c.1569-1612) and Miguel Chijiwa (1569-1632) were the ambassadors representing three warlords, or daimyō (Ōtomo Sōrin, Omura Sumitada, and Arima Harunobu); these young men were accompanied by Julian Nakaura (ca. 1568-1633) and Martino Hara (ca. 1569–-1629), nobles from the cities of Nakaura and Hizen. The legation also included two Japanese Jesuit brothers, Costantino Dourado (1567?-1620) and Jorge de Loyola (1562-1589), who had studied printing in Goa and who were to acquire further proficiency in printing techniques during their European sojourn, enabling them to print books in the Japanese language, in kana script, after their return to Japan.

In Madrid the embassy was received by Philip II. It also travelled throughout Italy for almost a year, receiving an audience in Florence with Grand Duke Francis I de’ Medici and in Rome with Pope Gregory XIII. A short time after the reception in Rome the pope died, and the envoys were fortunate enough to be able to attend the coronation of the new pope, Sixtus V. The return trip to Japan, by way of Barcelona and Lisbon, took four years, the embassy arriving back in Nagasaki in July 1590.

Boscaro, 5; not known to Cordier or Streit

No sale record for the Milan edition in the Rare Book Hub database.

OCLC locates no copies worldwide; the Laures Kirishitan Bunko Database locates only two copies (University of Tsukuba Library; Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milan)