Lettera di Giappone dell’anno M. DC. VI.

A$18,500 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

del P. Giovanni Rodriguez della Compagnia di GIESU. Al motto R.P. Claudio Acquaviva Generale della medesima Religione. Roma : Bartolomeo Zannetti, 1610. Duodecimo, modern limp vellum with silk ties; pp. 88 pp.; title with woodcut Jesuit device; title re-margined at bottom edge and with tiny loss at top outer corner, occasional browning or spotting, a very good copy. The rare first edition of the Jesuit annual letter from Japan for the year 1606, composed by Portuguese missionary João Rodrigues (1558-1633) and sent to the Superior General in Rome, Claudio Acquaviva. Rodrigues, also known as Tçuzu or the interpreter , served in both China and Japan, but was particularly revered for his mastery of Japanese he authored the Arte da lingoa de Japam . Writing soon after the start of the Tokugawa shogunate, Rodriguez relates the latest developments regarding the Jesuit colleges and residences, describes the difficulties facing Kirishitans and missionaries at this time, and gives an account of current events in Japanese secular society. Not in Cordier (who notes only the Milan edition of the same year, col. 256) No sale record in the Rare Book Hub database for this Rome edition since the 1941 Maggs copy.

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.