[TENSHŌ EMBASSY] Oratione fatta in Roma alla presenza del sommo Pontefice Gregorio XIII. Dal molto R. P. Guasparri Consalvi Portughese, Sacerdote Theatino, à stanzia delli Re, & Legati Giapponesi.

A$12,500 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Et novamente posta in luce ridotta dal latino in lingua volgare da Agostino Ghettini studente in Fiorenza . In Firenze : A stanza di Francesco Dini da Colle, [1585]. Quarto (210 x 140 mm), old full calf with gilt lettering to upper board, spine with raised bands; [6] leaves; title with woodcut coat of arms of Pope Gregory XIII; woodcut initial; manuscript foliation at upper corners; light spotting, last leaf browned; a very good example. The first appearance in print, in the Italian vernacular, of the text of the Oratio delivered by Gaspar Gonçalves on behalf of the converted rulers of Bungo, Arima and Omura, before Pope Gregory XIII and the Japanese envoys of the Tenshō Embassy in Rome on 23 March 1585. It had first appeared in print, in Latin, earlier in 1585 as part of the first edition of the official account of Pope Gregory XIII s reception of the first Japanese embassy to Europe that was published in Rome by Francesco Zannetti. The present stand-alone Italian-language edition was an all-Florentine production: the translation was made by a local student, Agostino Ghettini, and the pamphlet was printed in the city by Francesco Dini da Colle, a publisher and writer of some renown. It was reprinted in the same year (1585) in Rome by Zanetti, and in Padua by Mereff. The Tenshō 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 Jes

• Binding: Hardcover

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