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RICCI, Matteo; Nicholas Trigault.

De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas Susepta ab Societate Iesu,

Ex P. Matthaei Riccii eiusdem Societatis Commentariis, Libri V.

Stock Code
106900
Lyon, Sumptibus Horatii Cardon, Ex typographeio Ioannis Iullieron, 1616
£9,500

The earliest authoritative source of information on China available in Europe at that time. The most important work on China since Marco Polo.

At his death Matteo Ricci, the pioneer Jesuit missionary to China, left an unfinished manuscript entitled Della entrata della Compagnia di Giesu at Christianita nella Cina. Trigault completed the manuscript, translated it into Latin and published it in 1615 in Augsburg. He added material from other Ricci manuscripts, as well as an account of Ricci's death and funeral. It was quickly reprinted across Europe and translated into numerous European languages. Gallagher writes '... it probably had more effect on the literary and scientific, the philosophical and the religious phases of life in Europe than any other historical volume of the seventeenth century. It introduced Confucius to Europe and Copernicus and Euclid to China. It opened a new world' (China in the Sixteenth Century the Journal of Matthew Ricci,

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Description

Second edition in Latin. 4to, (213 x 155 mm); [16], 628, [10] pp. (pp. 626-628 misnumbered as 606-608); engraved title page including a map of China, folding letterpress plate with woodcut diagram (repaired with minor loss), faint damp-staining to first five leaves, Contemporary blind-stamped calf, raised bands, carmine edges, expert restoration to corners and edges, a very good copy.

Bibliography

Cordier, Sinica, 809; Lowendahl, China Illustrata Nova, 1, 57; Cf. Lust, 836 (first edition); De Backer & Sommervogel VIII, 239; Streit V:2095.

Stock ID:106900

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