{"title":"Asia","description":"\u003cp\u003eAsian history, cultures, literature, philosophy, and societies across East, South, and Southeast Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"frois-luis","title":"FROIS, Luis","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of these two important and detailed letters by Frois, the first concerning the state of the Christian leaders and Jesuit missions in Japan in 1595 and the second dealing with the death of Hidetsugu the nephew and retainer of Hideyoshi (referred to in this letter by his common name Taicosama). The Portuguese Jesuit Frois was one of the leading members of the Jesuit mission in Japan and his reports are highly esteemed for their attention to detail and concrete data. By the 1590 s the predominately Jesuit Christian mission in Japan had made considerable progress, with nearly three hundred thousand converts. Frois worked for some years under the Provincial of India in charge of reporting on East Asia to the church in Europe, and in 1563, at the age 31, he arrived in Japan, at Nagasaki. In 1565 he journeyed to Kyoto, but with the downfall of his protector, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, he was forced to take refuge in Sakai. In 1569 he met Nobunaga, (the first of the great Japanese Generals who nearly unified Japan under his leadership) and received permission to proselytize. He spent the ensuing years in missionary work while writing The History of Portuguese Territories in East India. In his capacity as interpreter he travelled widely in Japan, was party to much inside information on affairs of State and witnessed many of the events that shaped Japan for some 250 years. The first letter is a general review of the year recounting events of especial importance with respect to the Society, dealing with particular places and Jesuit residences, providing detailed accounts of their political, social and religious circumstances. The second work is an extraordinary account of the death of Hidetsugu who was nominally the regent of Japan or Kanpaku, though all power effectively resided with his uncle Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi had made Hidetsugu, his only relative, his heir, though with the birth of Hideyoshi s son in 1593 to his mistress, this situation became untenable. Finally, in 1595, Hidetsugu was accused of plotting a coup and ordered to commit suicide, his allies were banished and his children and mistresses executed, with the exception of his one month old daughter. Frois  account is particularly detailed and knowledgeable giving much detail on the complex political background to the events and paints a picture of Hideyoshi as a cruel and vindictive leader. A good copy of these important letters from a most important period in Japanese history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FROIS, Luis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067014991,"sku":"L1081","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_1971.jpg?v=1781795329"},{"product_id":"semedo-alvaro","title":"SEMEDO, Alvaro","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the French translation of Semedo s seminal work on China, dedicated to Cardinal Mazarin. Semedo, born in 1586, entered the Jesuit Novitiate in 1602 and in 1608 departed for Goa where he completed his studies. He arrived in Nangking in 1613 and remained in the south of China throughout his many years of residence. In 1636 he was sent back to Europe to secure further assistance for the mission and new recruits. Between 1640 and 1644 he visited Lisbon, Madrid and Rome and published this work to further those aims. It was first published in Portuguese in 1641, then translated, rearranged and republished at Madrid in 1642. It was from this text that the work was then translated and published in Italian (1643) French (1645) and English (1655). He returned to China where he occupied the important post of vice-provincial of the China mission, remaining in Canton until his death in 1659. The generally sympathetic manner in which Semedo presented China to European readers shows this work was part of the Jesuit policy of accommodation in China. It is divided into two parts; the first, occupying two thirds of the book, deals with the temporal state of China and includes a great variety of topics. The second treats the spiritual state of China and is really a history of the Jesuit mission since the arrival of Francois Xavier in 1552. Semedo describes ia. the geography of China, its people and their habits, language, education and examination system, degrees, books and sciences, banquets, games, marriage, funerals, religions, superstitions and sacrifices, weapons, nobility, government, prisons and punishment, as well as the Moslems, Jews and other nationalities resident in China and the history of Christianity before the arrival of the Jesuits. Although Mendoza s and the Ricci-Trigault histories had contained brief descriptions of the language, Semedo s greatly expanded on these with much new material. His 23 year residence had given him considerable fluency in Chinese. He stressed the great antiquity of the Chinese language considering it to be one of the languages created at the destruction of Babel, and noted its relative grammatical simplicity, suggesting that it would be a good model for constructing a universal language, and gave a brief description of the composition of Chinese characters. His detailed descriptions of such things as the literati examinations, degrees, Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians and Eunuchs reflected a broad range of contact with Chinese society. His descriptions have a ring of authority and his attitude was markedly sympathetic to the Chinese and was far less critical of Chinese religions. He presented a very sympathetic, almost idealised portrait of Chinese education, noting the early role of moral teaching, good manners and obedience, and accurately stated the role of calligraphy and composition in the traditional Chinese curriculum. His description of the Eunuchs in China was equally colourful and detailed, describing their broad distribution in Ming Society and their specific roles in palaces, colleges and tribunals. He gave a very favourable assessment of Confucius and his teachings, describing his works in detail, and the tripartite division of Confucian cosmology. A good copy of this most interesting work, one of the first genuine and sympathetic pictures of China presented to an occidental audience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SEMEDO, Alvaro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816087396687,"sku":"L1312","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_6562.jpg?v=1781795317"},{"product_id":"acosta-emanuel-with-maffei-giovan-pietro","title":"ACOSTA, Emanuel [with] MAFFEI, Giovan Pietro","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of the first attempt to write a detailed history of the Jesuit missions in the East, especially in Japan, and one of the most important and diverse compilations of letters relating to the Jesuit mission in the Far East; prefaced by Acosta's important \"Commentarius\", the work includes some 39 letters dating from between 1548-1564, most of which relate to Japan. As early in the 1550 s influential Jesuits argued for an official synthesis of letters from the missions, motivated in part by the fear that someone else would do it for them, and in part to promote their enormous successes in the east. The text is based on a manuscript  Historia dos missiones do Oriente at é o anno de 1568  written by the Portuguese, Manuel da Costa. Da Costa, a Jesuit missionary and bibliographer who taught at Coimbra where most Jesuit letters were available in uncensored form. His manuscript was sent to Rome, translated into Latin, and was given to the young novice Giovanni Pietro Maffei (1533-1603) to prepare for publication. Maffei added the  De Japonicis rebus epistolarum  containing abridged Latin translations of letters sent from the Jesuits working in Japan until the year 1564. In his introduction Maffei congratulates Da Costa on his effort in summarizing the contents of the letters together in the commentary. Maffei was later to write the hugely successful  Historiarum Indicarum libri XVI , much praised for its excellent treatment of Japan. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The letters begin with the Japanese convert Paul's letter from Goa written in December 1548, followed by two famous letters of St. Francis Xavier published here for the first time. The first of these is written from Malacca in June 1549, the second on his arrival in Japan dated Kagoshima, November 1549. Letters by Frois (1532-1597), Vilela (1525-1572), and Almeida (1525-1583) are of particular interest in that they give much detail of Japanese religion, culture, and customs. This work was reprinted and translated many times, and made a significant contribution to early European perceptions of the east. A very good copy of the rare first edition of this seminal work that paints one of the earliest detailed pictures of Japan, from the Jesuit college in Mainz now the Johannes Gutenberg University.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ACOSTA, Emanuel [with] MAFFEI, Giovan Pietro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816110563663,"sku":"L1082","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Acosta-L1082-4.jpg?v=1781795309"},{"product_id":"cardim-antonio-francisco","title":"CARDIM, Ant√≥nio Francisco","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst uncommon edition of an early account of the Jesuit mission in Japan, established by St. Francis Xavier in the mid-sixteenth century, and other Christian outposts in Southern Asia. The original Portuguese text was never printed, while this Italian translation was probably accomplished by the Jesuit Giacomo Diacetto. A rare and partial French version was published the following year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAntónio Francisco Cardim (1596-1659) was a leading Jesuit missionary in the Far East, spending many years converting locals and organising Christian communities in the ancient kingdoms of Ayutthaya, Lan Xang and Tonkin. Back in Rome and later in Portugal, he supervised the large ecclesiastical province of Japan, which included also Macau and the Siamese area, and wrote several works related to those regions; most famously, he thoroughly recorded the persecutions of the Japanese Christians from 1597 to 1640 and published one of the earliest detailed map of Japan. His Relatione, dedicated to Pope Innocent X, narrates the troubled life of the Jesuit Company in Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, as well as Macau and the island of Hainan, dwelling from time to time on interesting linguistic problems in transposing Christian dogmas into the Oriental languages and cultures.\u003cbr\u003e\nThis copy was bought by Bellisario Bulgarini (died 1660), nephew of the renowned bibliophile and scholar of Siena Bellisario Bulgarini (1539-1620). Bellisario the Younger records in the inscription at the end of the book that he acquired the volume for one lira from the bookseller Filippo Succhielli. He contributed to the enlargement of the vast family library, on which see Cento anni di libri: la Biblioteca di Bellisario Bulgarini e della sua famiglia, circa 1560-1660 (esp. no. 257bis) and Dennis E. Rhodes, ‘Per la biblioteca di Belisario Bulgarini e per la storia del mercato librario in Siena lui vivente (1539-1620)’, in Studi bibliografici: atti del Convegno dedicato alla storia del libro italiano nel V centenario dell’introduzione dell’arte tipografica in Italia, Bolzano, 7-8 ottobre 1965, Florence 1967, pp. 159-168.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CARDIM, Ant√≥nio Francisco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816130781519,"sku":"L1980","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9598.jpg?v=1781795263"},{"product_id":"korean-map-jeolla-province","title":"KOREAN MAP, Jeolla Province","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe map has been produced in the style of Jeong Cheok ( \/ , 1390   1475), a successful 15th century cartographer, himself a scholar-retainer who served several Joseon kings. The modern concepts of latitude and longitude were not understood in Korea until the early 19th century, and the flatness and distortion of the land in Jeong Cheok-style representations reflect this. Nonetheless, the shape, layout, and topographical properties of the provinces are depicted with impressive accuracy, enabling an overland traveller to plan the most direct route avoiding natural barriers. \u003cbr\u003e\n  Jeong Cheok  maps bear a number of distinct stylistic characteristics. First, further information is added in a text border surrounding the map. Second, natural topographical features are highly simplified; mountains are indicated symbolically as a jagged row of uniform peaks, and coasts and waterways are low-detail. Third, districts (always with two-syllable names) and military bases are represented by uniformly sized bubbles. In this map, these bubbles are pink; the district name is written down the centre of the bubble; to the right is the number of days of overland travel required to reach it from the capital, and to the left is its administrative classification. The Joseon administrative classification system includes, from largest to smallest, the bu (provincial capital city), mok (mid-level city), gun or su (county or prefecture), and finally lyeong or gam (small town). \u003cbr\u003e\n The lines and text of the map are drawn in black ink. Land is uncoloured, while water is depicted in a light blue wash. Strikingly, water is coloured darker blue where it meets land. Mountains are coloured brown and labelled. Islands, also named, are depicted as white ovals in the ocean. There are one military base (byeongyeong ) and two naval bases (suyeong ), left and right, in pink bubbles. Land-based outposts (yeogdo ) and offshore ocean settlements are marked in white boxes. There is a title box with  Jeolla province   six  (Jeolla do lyuk ) in the top right corner. Within the text border running along the top, left, and right sides, there are remarks about what lies beyond the map in these directions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KOREAN MAP, Jeolla Province","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133337423,"sku":"L1754","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1754k.jpg?v=1781795254"},{"product_id":"ming-chinese-map","title":"MING CHINESE MAP","description":"\u003cp\u003eWithin the map, the fourteen administrative provinces of Ming China are disproportionately expanded relative to surrounding areas. They account for approximately 80% of the surface. The layout of the inland waterway network is the most prominent feature. Minor rivers are rendered as large as major ones, and named. Lakes and even the sources of some rivers are named. Also privileged are the relative positions of major waterside settlements. The map depicts them as similarly sized and spaced, illustrating at a glance the order in which one would arrive if travelling by boat. This depiction of the waterway network and its cities is distorted to fill the area of Ming China, and water-poor areas in the far west and north are dramatically shrunk or dispensed with entirely. Compensating for the distortion, the true distance between major Ming Chinese cities is stated in miles (li ) at several points. \u003cbr\u003e\n Cities and districts of greatest political, cultural, and historical significance are ringed in red: the northern and southern capitals of Beijing and Nanjing , the cultural centre and ancient capital of Luoyang , and Xianyang . Xianyang was important to the Western Zhou (1046   771 BC, remembered as a halcyon period of pre-imperial China) and as well as the capital of the first dynasty, the Qin (221   206 BC), and these dynasties are noted on the map. Also drawn and named are several mountain ranges, which would serve as markers for navigation by water. Interestingly, the name markers of many of the fourteen provinces and Joseon Korea (Chaoxian ) are accompanied by the name of corresponding constellations from among the twenty-eight lunar lodges (ershiba su ). The Great Wall (chang cheng ) is marked, but its shape is distorted. For example, Ming extensions of the Wall into the east, which reach to the modern border of North Korea, are depicted as a stub. Similarly, the western extremities of the Wall extending through modern Gansu and Xinjiang are shrunk and simplified. \u003cbr\u003e\n Water features are also the focus in the depiction of territories beyond the border. Interestingly, foreign water features are rendered as large and as clearly as those within Ming China, even if unconnected. These include Lake Baikal (Hanhai ) and, in the southwest, what appears to be the Indus river. Mountains that are near to or form the source include the Khentii mountains (Langjushan ) and of greatest cultural importance, the Kunlun mountains in the west. One of the most intriguing features is the depiction of the mythical underground river linking the Yellow River back to its imagined source in the Kunluns, drawn in faint yellow and running below the Great Wall. Many non-Han tribes, settlements, and ethnic groups are indicated in their proper locales. \u003cbr\u003e\n In addition to these natural features, also depicted are outlying foreign regions and nations, bordering China or accessible by water. These are rendered comparatively small in contrast to the provinces of Ming China itself. These include modern Tibet and Xinjiang (Xifan ), Joseon Korea, Japan (Ribenguo ), what is now Vietnam (indicated both as Annan and Jiaozhi ), Thailand ( Siam , Xianluoguo ), the Chenla kingdom (Zhenlaguo ), and modern-day Hainan (Qiongzhou ). (It is noteworthy that the character used for  country , guo , is a pre-modern simplified form.) Also included is the Xiaoliuqiu island, just off the southern coast of Taiwan. However, Taiwan is not depicted, even though it was well-known to and settled by the Ming Chinese. This is also the case in other maps of the period. \u003cbr\u003e\n Far off islands in the southern and eastern seas or circled regions in the west and north are marked in minimal detail. The Liuqiu kingdom (Liuqiuguo ), for example, refers to unspecified islands in the East China Sea, though the name is currently used for the Ryukyu Islands. The  Kingdom of pierced stomachs  (Chuanweiguo ),  Kingdom of large men  (Darenguo ), and  Kingdom of little men  (Xiaorenguo ) belong to this category. Most interesting among these, perhaps, is the country is the far southeast, N√ºrenguo ,  Kingdom of women . Some scholars believe this refers to the uncharted but rumoured areas of Northern Australia, which many Ming Chinese presumed to operate a matriarchal society. Interestingly, in the territories to the west there are circled spaces that have been left blank, anticipating unknown lands there whose names might be added.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MING CHINESE MAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133402959,"sku":"L1756","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1756-1.jpg?v=1781795254"},{"product_id":"korean-map-capital-province","title":"KOREAN MAP, Capital Province","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe map has been produced in the style of Jeong Cheok ( \/ , 1390  1475), a successful 15th century cartographer, himself a scholar-retainer who served several Joseon kings. The modern concepts of latitude and longitude were not understood in Korea until the early 19th century, and the flatness and distortion of the land in Jeong Cheok-style representations reflect this. Nonetheless, the shape, layout, and topographical properties of the provinces are depicted with impressive accuracy, enabling an overland traveller to plan the most direct route avoiding natural barriers.  Jeong Cheok  maps bear a number of distinct stylistic characteristics. First, further information is added in a text border surrounding the map. Second, natural topographical features are highly simplified; mountains are indicated symbolically as a jagged row of uniform peaks, and coasts and waterways are low-detail. Third, districts   always with two-syllable names   and military bases are represented by uniformly sized bubbles. In this map, these bubbles are pink; the district name is written down the centre of the bubble; to the right is the number of days of overland travel required to reach it from the capital, and to the left is its administrative classification. The capital city (gyeong ) bubble is circled twice. The Joseon administrative classification system includes, from largest to smallest, the bu (provincial capital city), mok (mid-level city), gun or su (county or prefecture), and finally lyeong or gam (small town). The lines and text of the map are drawn in black ink. Land is uncoloured, while water is depicted in a light blue wash. Strikingly, water is coloured darker blue where it meets land. Mountains are coloured brown and labelled. Islands, also named, are depicted as white ovals in the ocean. Land-based outposts (yeogdo ) and offshore ocean settlements are marked in white boxes. There is a title box with  Capital   [province] four  (gyeonggi sa ) in the top right corner. Within the text border running along the top, left, and right sides, there are remarks about what lies beyond the map in these directions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KOREAN MAP, Capital Province","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133468495,"sku":"L1755","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1-1_5ef02c80-d660-4d74-a4a8-895fa0f56ca1.jpg?v=1781795252"},{"product_id":"polo-marco","title":"POLO, Marco","description":"One of the earliest editions, including a charming illustration of Marco Polo at the court of the Khan, of the well-known account of his travel in Asia (and particularly China), which was considered legendary by his contemporaries. Born in Venice (1254) from a family of merchants, in 1271, together with his father Niccol√≤ and the uncle Matteo, he embarked on an epic journey across Asia, arriving in Peking, where he was in the service of Kublai Khan, the Mongolian Emperor, for several years. Returning to Venice in 1298, Marco was taken as a prisoner by Genoese after the battle of Curzola. It was in prison that he dictated his adventures to Rustichello da Pisa who first put them into writing in French, probably using Marco s diary. After gaining his freedom Polo lived in Venice for the rest of his life (1324-25).\r \r About 150 manuscript editions in different languages spread within a century, such as the ancient version in Venetian, only recently discovered ( Il Milione Veneto. Ms. CM 211 della Biblioteca civica di Padova di Marco Polo , ed. by A. Barbieri \u0026amp; A. Andreose, 1999). However, the anonymous shorter Italian version, first printed in 1496 (Venice, Giovanni Battista Sessa) and reissued many times by Righettini and others, was the most widely read by the Mediterranean sailors. Better known as  Il Milione , nickname of Polo s family, this work showed similarities with the typical merchant s manuals and used simple and concise language, including both first and second hand information on geography, customs and economies of unknown peoples and territories of Asia. The text opens with a short address to the reader and a chapter on the city of Trebizond. The first part is aimed at introducing Marco Polo s family. There follow 145 chapters describing the Turkish lands, small and great Armenia, Mosul and Baghdad, the territories of Balkh and Badakhshan, the fertile Persian Empire and its desert, the Tatar Empire and the borders of India. The work especially focuses on the politics, cities and architecture of the Chinese empire. For instance, many pages are dedicated to the luxurious residences of the Great Khan and the numerous diplomatic missions undertaken by Polo on his behalf, such as the journey to the extensive province of Tibet. Some of the information in this book was incorporated in important maps of the later Middle Age, such as the Catalan World Map (1375). Above all, Marco Polo s was the most influential travelogue on the Silk Road ever written in an European language depicting the enchanted Asia as a rich continent characterised by incredible resources, creatures and prodigies, which opened up the way for the arrival of thousands of Westerners in the centuries to come. It encouraged XV century traders interested in exotic products, such as silk, porcelain, jewellery and spices, to visit Asia and start new business, It also inspired missionary efforts from Europe, primarily by Franciscan, Dominican, or Jesuit missionaries.  This influence prevailed until the seventeenth century when the maps of Martini, the visits of the Jesuits and the work of de l Isle and d'Anville superseded his accounts . . . As a story of adventure, an account of the experiences of one of the greatest travellers who ever lived, the book has remained alive  ( Printing \u0026amp; the mind of man , p. 23).","brand":"POLO, Marco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816137630031,"sku":"K100","price":29500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-42-copy-copy.jpg?v=1781795198"},{"product_id":"trigault-nicolas-2","title":"TRIGAULT, Nicolas","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good, crisp copy of the second edition of Nicolas Trigault s influential Latin translation of Matteo Ricci SJ. Trigault (1577-1628) was a Flemish Jesuit who carried out ground-breaking missionary work in China in the early C17. Inspired by the activities of Ricci, Trigault founded new missions and encouraged the translation of European works on science and religion into Chinese. Between 1614 and 1618, Trigault was in Europe to report to Pope Paul V about the Chinese missions and to promote the Jesuits  work in China. Whilst in Europe, he edited and translated from Italian into Latin Matteo Ricci s missionary journal, first published in 1615 and reprinted numerous times. Ricci (1552-1610) spent over twenty years in China, where he travelled extensively, founded several missions and supervised the construction of a Catholic church in Peking, a city hitherto  forbidden  to Westerners. Ricci quickly mastered Chinese script and Classical Chinese, a linguistic talent he applied to the writing of a Portuguese-Chinese dictionary. After devoting a few pages to Ricci s biography,  De expeditione  provides a short introduction to Chinese administration, art and religion, including the presence of Islamism and Judaism. The rest of the work is concerned with the deeds of Ricci (and sometimes other Jesuit missionaries), his travels, learning, and encounters. One section is devoted to one of Ricci s fundamental contributions to Chinese culture: a European-style world map (1.52 x 3.66 metres) in Chinese, centred on China, which the Wanli Emperor requested to be printed on silk and hung on the walls of his palace it was also the first Chinese map to feature the Americas. A Latin adaptation of this map, circumscribed to the Chinese Empire, is present on the t-p of this edition. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy belonged to Robert C. Jenkins (1815-96), a renowned C19 English antiquarian.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TRIGAULT, Nicolas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141201743,"sku":"L2737","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2737.jpg?v=1781795179"},{"product_id":"arthus-gotthard","title":"ARTHUS, Gotthard","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of the FIRST EDITION of this collection of travel reports from Asia and Africa. Born in Gdansk, Gotthard Arthus (1570-1630) studied at Jena and worked as co-rector at the Frankfurt Stadtschule. He struck a twenty-year long collaboration with the de Bry press to work on the Latin translation of their illustrated series  Historia Indiae Orientalis  a fundamental work for the creation of a shared knowledge of the Orient in Europe the first volume of which was published in 1597. Arthus s work was a compilation of material also present in de Bry s. It covered not only India, Bengal, Ceylon, Malabar, Sumatra, Japan, China, the Molucchae and Philippines, but also parts of Western Africa like Mozambique and Madagascar, as well as the Azores and even, briefly, Brazil. It employed material drawn from the most recent accounts of Portuguese and Dutch expeditions and travelogues authored by Jesuit missionaries, covering a wide variety of subjects, from physical geography to flora, fauna, customs, politics and local illnesses. The beautifully engraved maps of Southern Asia, the Middle East and Persia, here in fine condition and impression, were taken from the reduced-size edition of Ptolemy s  Geography  edited by Giovanni Antonio Magini and printed in Cologne in 1597 (Shirley 202). The world map in two hemispheres and the portolan world chart were reduced from Mercator s double-page folio version printed in 1587 (Shirley 204).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ARTHUS, Gotthard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816155095375,"sku":"L2836b","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2836.jpg?v=1781794918"},{"product_id":"jesuits-1","title":"[JESUITS]","description":"\u003cp\u003eGood copy of this scarce first collected edition of Jesuits travel in India, Persia and the Moluccas, with mentions of Japan. Although Sabin (36082, following  Bibliotheca Grenvilliana ) calls it the third edition, it is rather as appears in Cordier s  Bibliotheca japonica  a collection of material from the  Epistolae indicae  and the  Epistolae japanicae  (Petrus Mascarena s letters) first printed by Velpius with slightly differing titles in 1566 (the former) and 1569 (both). It gathers letters written in the 1540s and 50s by eminent Jesuits including Francis Xavier, Gasparus Belga, Henricus Henriquez, Antonius Quadrus, Emanuel Texeira and Petrus Mascarena. Concerned with ethnography, travel, theology and linguistics, these accounts celebrated efforts to defy  idolatry  undertaken through the rigorous Jesuit missionary spirit. The transmission of the Catholic creed through education and argument was a fundamental tenet. Francis Xavier explained that in Goa the children who heard him preach  would then instruct their parents and servants  and they would be more easily encouraged to turn away from their traditional cults, including the veneration of cows. Among the questions posed to the missionaries by Indian locals was  whether God be white or black, according to colour differences perceived by human beings . The Jesuits  attention to the pitfalls of translation were omnipresent; for instance, Henricus Henriquez prepared a grammar of the Malabar language to argue with local  doctores  on religious matters.  Epistolae  also told of travels in Arabia and Persia, like the visit of Gasparus Belga to the Portuguese possession of Hormuz Island, a place with no grass or birds, where the soil is red and rocks encrusted with salt due to little precipitation. A new colonial, Counter-Reformation martyrology was also being honed as in the episode, narrated by Antonio Quadro, of the 30 Indian adolescents kidnapped by the Turks and forced in vain to abandon Christianity in favour of Islam. A scarce, densely packed work on Oriental travel and ethnography seen through the lens of the Counter-Reformation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[JESUITS]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816160600399,"sku":"L3039b","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20240729_161115.jpg?v=1781794897"},{"product_id":"meid_-zu-meitang-tu","title":"MEIDŌ ZU (MEITANG TU)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe title of the prints: Meid_(Illuminated hall) is derived from the name of the building in which the ancient Chinese Emperors conducted rituals and ceremonies related to cosmology. Here, the human body is the Meid , and a microcosm of the external world, the model and the image of the universe are depicted within it. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the illustration of three views of the figure, there are twelve main  qi  energy channels (meridians) handcoloured in red, yellow, white, black, and blue, representing Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood, based on the traditional Chinese philosophy of  Wu Xing  (Five elements \/phases of the universe). The meridians and five phases combine and interact in a profound and complex manner. The invisible meridians run through the body, each corresponding to a particular organ, forming an intricate network of three hundred and forty-nine acu-moxa points, suggestive of constellations in the night sky. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The scrolls indicate the location of the acupuncture points and how deep the needle should go, as well as where to and not to apply moxibustion herbs to release or withhold energy. The classical Chinese text would not have been comprehensible to ordinary Japanese so these were designed for scholars. There was no public medical college in Japan at that time and many practising physicians also doubled as teachers, running small private medical schools alongside their practices. Hanging scrolls would have been eminently suited for both purposes. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n It was believed that acupuncture and moxibustion were introduced to Japan in the 5th century by the Korean immigrants. However, it was not incorporated into mainstream teaching until the 17th century when a large number of medical\/philosophy books were imported from China, and many highly skilled Chinese physicians sought sanctuary in Japan following the fall of the Ming dynasty. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n During the Edo period (1603   1868), Chinese philosophy and literature also flourished in Japan, and neo-Confucianism (Shushigaku) became the official doctrine for the ruling samurai government. From the evidence of these charts, Chinese medicines and Confucianism were likely taught side by side as they share the same roots   the belief that the function of the  qi  energy in the human body should be maintained in harmony and balance with the external world. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Many Confucian scholars in the Edo period became medical doctors, adapting their knowledge and skills to the profession as they were able to study medical text books written in Chinese. As the urban population grew, so did the demand for physicians, and Chinese medicine was now taught at private schools or homes. The charts such as these could well have been hung on the wall of the schools or at the doctors  practices. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Meido chart was modeled on a life-size bronze man with all the meridians and acu-moxa points drawn on the figure created in the Song dynasty (960   1279) in China, and therefore the charts are also called Meid d jin zu (Illuminated hall, bronze figures). Large printed figures such as these were used since the Ming dynasty (1368   1644). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The scrolls are the Japanese version of the Ming dynasty  Mingtang tu  with additional information, and are one of the earliest examples of Japanese single-sheet woodblock prints showing sophisticated printing skills, with meticulous details and vigorous lines, which subsequently evolved into early ukiyo-e (picture of floating world) prints in the late 17th century. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n From the collection of Jean Blondelet, the greatest French collector of rare medical books of the 20th century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MEIDŌ ZU (MEITANG TU)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816166596943,"sku":"K131","price":27500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/2022-01-03-13.11.24.jpg?v=1781794870"},{"product_id":"jesuits-2","title":"[JESUITS].","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce Japonicum including an account of the famous Japanese Tensh embassy and its introduction to the Pope. This is the second issue, the first dated 1597 on the t-p. This copy was probably never bound in anything else but paper wrappers; with its untrimmed fore-edge and partly crudely cut lower edge, it looks just as it would have done then, fresh from the press. Dating from 1585-95, the six orations, on subjects spanning papal funerals and theology, include one delivered by Gaspare Consalvi only published in this edition on the arrival of the Tensh embassy in Rome in 1585. First planned by the Jesuit Alessandro Valignano and headed by the nobleman Mancio It , it was sent by the Christian Lord tomo S rin in 1582. In the course of eight years, it visited Portugal, Spain and Italy, meeting Philip II, Francesco de  Medici, Pope Gregory XIII and, after his death in the same year as the oration was written, Sixtus V. Consalvi s oration introduced the legation to Gregory XIII remarking on the distance separating Japan and Rome, on the cultural differences, but also on the religious devotion of those new, remote Catholics. A scarce, important text.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[JESUITS].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820342255951,"sku":"L3306(a)","price":2450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-15.03.48.webp?v=1781794838"},{"product_id":"astolfi-giovanni-felice","title":"ASTOLFI, Giovanni Felice.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very rare, fascinating work on worldwide popular cults of the Virgin Mary one of the earliest systematic works on the subject an Americanum and Japonicum unrecorded in major bibliographies. Felice Astolfi (f. 1603), of whom little is known, was the author of an important historical work ( Dell officina storica ) and of several on miracles, a very popular subject in Counter-Reformation print.  Historia universale  explores miracles and the popular cult of the Virgin Mary in the Old and New World, and in the Orient, through hundreds of fascinating anecdotes painstakingly drawn from Jesuit letters, and geographical and travel accounts like Botero s. The variable collation of the preliminaries reflects the troubled history of its printing in the Autumn of 1623; the present is an early issue, with a blank where later issues display an additional dedication or a shorter gathering.  Although [it] built on a long medieval tradition of devotional literature, the miracle stories took on new significance in the context of the early modern religious debates about the immanence of God. Astolfi addressed one of the major theological concepts debated in the early modern period: what is the proper role and function of miracles?  (D Andrea,  Miracles ). His narrative is especially concerned with the intercessory power of Marian images and their cult, and the immanence of God in physical objects. It begins with a life of Mary followed by a list of the relics (her body and clothing), with details of those preserved in Venetian churches. The first nine parts discuss the foundation of the earliest Marian churches and monasteries, accounts of miracles, the power of sacred images, iconoclasm, the miracles and local cult of specific images. From part 10 onwards are approx. 40 pages of accounts devoted to the wider world: Africa, where the Virgin makes Christian slaves escape the Moors  prison, miracles in Manomotapa, Ethiopia and Angola, Christian fights by land and sea against the Moors; India, where a man s rosary saves his sick, unchristened son, a bloody cross appears over the unburied body of a converted native, Monaian castle is reconquered after a procession, and Our Lady of Bengala is worshipped; the Caribbean, with a vessel haunted by demons at sea and saved by the Madonna of Guadalupe; Japan, with miracles during earthquakes, the miraculous healing of the sick in Bungo, the cult of Our Lady of Japan and Our Lady of Chitaoca, the burning of the Bonzi s idols, the Marian cult encouraged by the Queen of Tango, devotion in the city of Amangucci, exorcisms, four crosses appearing on a tree; Brazil, with the foundation of the church of Nostra Signora dell Aiuto, the conversion of a cannibal, the destruction of relics at the hand of Protestant colonists; Mexico, with praise for the natives  treatment of the sick and management of hospitals, a Marian apparition to the sick, the Virgin s feeding a sick woman; Peru, with the Marian cult in the mines of Potosi and a miracle against a demon pretending to offer help to miners, the care of the sick, the apparition of the Virgin to a dying native, the sad fate of a girl lying in confession, a healing prayer taught to a native; and China, with apparitions of the Virgin in the sky. Very scarce, fascinating and unusual.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ASTOLFI, Giovanni Felice.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820346515791,"sku":"L3457","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9373.jpg?v=1781794811"},{"product_id":"ricci-matteo","title":"RICCI, Matteo","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this Italian translation of  De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu , one of the most influential accounts of China to appear in Europe in the 17th century. A record of contemporary China and the progress of the church there, it was primarily based on journals written by Matteo Ricci during his time on the Jesuit mission. Originally written in Italian but first published in a Latin translation by fellow Jesuit Nicolas Trigaut, the present Italian translation by Antonio Sozzini is itself based on this Latin translation, as are all other translations, including French, German, and Spanish. This work was found posthumously in Ricci s Beijing office and subsequently published. The excellence of the historical record and the deep connection and relationship that Ricci had with the country and culture make this an outstanding text, and a unique work for 17th century Europe. Ricci was the first Westerner to live in China for more than a few months, and one of the few to speak and read Chinese at a time when Chinese civilisation was still unknown in Europe; Ricci himself says that all other contemporaneous accounts of China are either based on imagination or on rumour. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Ricci s text is an encyclopaedic account of late Ming China in five books, and covers its geography, politics, and culture as well as its philosophy and religions. It is an interesting ethnographical document, as Ricci covers the use of bamboo, coal mining and distribution, tea production and drinking, as well as Chinese architecture, music and theatre. For example, he comments on the ubiquity of tea, noting that it is sipped rather than drunk, and always taken hot. He opines that it does not have an unpleasant taste, although slightly bitter. Ricci does not only provide an accurate account of Chinese culture, but also describes the progress of Christianity in China due to the Jesuits  mission. His approach to Chinese religion as a Jesuit missionary is particularly interesting; he rejects Buddhism and Taoism due to their  idol worship , but shows an appreciation of Confucius, who he reads in a moral rather than religious light, and sees as being in harmony with Christian teachings. Ricci also details the  accommodationist  policy employed in the mission, based on this sense of compatibility between Christianity and Confucianism. This policy required the Jesuit missionaries to learn the Chinese language and understand the culture, rather than attempt to impose Western customs and the use of the Latin language in religious rites, as had been done previously. The text, which gives a broad but detailed overview of contemporary China is of great value as a primary source due to it being based on first hand observations and Ricci s immersion in the culture, facilitated by his fluency in Chinese and being a resident for 27 years. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Ricci was a scholar as well as a Jesuit priest and missionary, who studied Classics, Law, philosophy and theology, as well as mathematics, cosmology, and astronomy under Christopher Clavius before undertaking the missionary expedition to China. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Saint Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Seminary in Philadelphia was founded 1832. The eponymous Charles Borromeo was Latin archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RICCI, Matteo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820353265999,"sku":"L2176","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-21-2.jpg?v=1781793817"},{"product_id":"jesuits-5","title":"[JESUITS.]","description":"\u003cp\u003eGood copy of the first edition of this important account of missionary expeditions in China by the Jesuits Manuel Dias (fl.1610s), Venceslaus Pantaleon (1588-1626) and Nicolas Trigault (1577-1628). All three made major contributions to Sino-European cultural exchanges: Dias introduced the telescope from the Netherlands in 1610; Pantaleon reported important astronomic observations from China; and Trigault encouraged the Chinese translation of European works on science and religion and produced the first system of Chinese Romanisation. The ‘Relatione’ includes letters written by the three missionaries as well as a narrative account touching on diverse topics—the Chinese government, political situation and society, and Jesuit travels and missions. Special attention is devoted to the Eastern Tartars—a population not yet fully known to Europeans. The ‘Relatione’ describes the Tartar threat against China, including monstrous presages that anticipated their arrival—dragons, comets, rivers of blood, and a two-headed calf—and their cunning attacks to defeat the Chinese despite their lesser numbers—e.g., by pretending to be merchants and being allowed unguarded into a fortified city. Through such accounts, Jesuits missionaries generated a coherent body of information on Eastern civilisations for a European audience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[JESUITS.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859634823503,"sku":"L2500","price":5850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1-6_60de5ea8-c691-4ceb-ace0-fd9f895ef59a.jpg?v=1781793781"},{"product_id":"marcos-de-lisboa","title":"MARCOS de Lisboa.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the first translation into French, by Diego Navarro, of this important work on the history of the Franciscan Order. Marcos de Lisboa  Friar minor, historian, and Bishop of Oporto in Portugal, b. at Lisbon d. in 1591. While visiting the principal convents of the Franciscan Order in Spain, Italy, and France, at the instance of the minister general, Fr. Andrea Alvarez, he succeeded in collecting a number of original documents bearing upon the history of the order. Previous to this in 1532 the minister general, Father Paul Pisotti, had instructed all the provincials of the order to collect all documents they could find pertaining to the fifteenth century, for the purpose of continuing the \"Conformities\" of Bartholomew of Pisa. A great part of the material thus brought together was given to Mark of Lisbon; with the aid of which, and of the Chronicle of Marianus of Florence and what he had himself collected, he compiled in Portuguese his well-known \"Chronicle of the Friars Minor\", published at Lisbon in 1556-68. This work has gone through several editions; and has been translated into Italian, French, and Spanish, and partly into English.   The work is taken up almost completely with biographies of illustrious men of the order, the title being thus somewhat misleading. It is of great historical value, especially since the original sources to which the author had access, have entirely disappeared. It is worth recording that to Mark of Lisbon we are indebted for the first edition of a grammar of the Bicol language in the Philippine Islands.\" Catholic encyclopaedia. \u003cbr\u003e\n The work is of particular interest now in recording the early missions of the Franciscans in Asia.  But the Jesuits had not been the first missionaries to arrive in East Asia. The Friars Minor had worked in the region since the time of the Mongols. Moreover, the friars had accompanied the first Portuguese voyages along the sea route to India. Erasing them from their rightful place in the first chapters of the story of the spread of Christianity in Asia was justly felt as an affront to Franciscan honour. It is therefore no surprise that early modern Franciscan chroniclers sought to reclaim the memory of their pioneering efforts. .. Those adventures were considered among the many accomplishments of the early friars and thus repeated in institutional histories that circulated among Franciscans. Perhaps the most influential of the chronicles where the story of the early friars in Asia was recounted is the Cr‚àö‚â•nica da Ordem dos Frades Menores (3 vols., 1557-1570), written by Frei Marcos de Lisboa (1511-1591) in Portuguese and widely translated. This massive book included several chapters on the story of the Franciscans who followed the Silk Road to the lands of the Great Khan  understood to be Central Asian territories ruled over by descendants of Genghis Khan (1206-1227), although these places were not precisely situated in medieval or early modern texts. Frei Marcos recounted how Pope Innocent IV (r.1243-1254) sent priests to the  most ferocious and cruel Tartar people, who seemed intent on destroying the whole world.  Summoning friars to act as ambassadors, Innocent sent them on two routes into Asia with news of the gospel,  so that at least the fear of God might curb their many cruelties.  The southern route took one Dominican-led expedition to Persia. The northern expedition, a Franciscan group led by Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (1180-1252), made it to Tartaria in 1245 after suffering great hardships along their route. Having passed through  many labors, dangers, and weakness from hunger, since they ate nothing but wheat boiled in water, and to drink they had to melt water that was frozen over a fire,  they were rewarded with dramatic results. In the succinct r ésum é of Frei Marcos:  They made great conversions to the faith among the Tartars, and had a custody or vicariate of many convents among the Tartars .. Frei Marcos s later chapters mention another set of Franciscan emissaries, one sent by Benedict XII (r.1334-1342) into Tartaria nearly a century later, in 1341. Soon after they arrived at their destination, this group led by Giovanni de  Marignolli (called Jo‚àö¬£o de Florença here) was expelled to lands further east by a Muslim usurper of the Tartar throne  who had, however, first delivered some of the friars to a Muslim crowd that  very cruelly cut them to pieces with swords . In those more distant Eastern lands, referred to as the  most vast empire of the Great Khan , Marignolli was received cordially and given a  general license to preach throughout his empire . Carrying a great cross in his hand, Lisboa reported,  preaching with his friars in all places, he converted many pagans to the faith of Christ, and built many churches, always preaching the name of Christ, without fear . .. Frei Marcos de Lisboa was able to examine archives of various Franciscan houses in Spain and Portugal, sifting through medieval documents in order to craft his narrative. He learned of the thirteenth and fourteenth century missions out along the Silk Road since reports about them circulated as far as Iberia. Records of the papal pronouncements that spurred these voyages and conceded Franciscans privileges to organize and administer new churches in distant lands were also mentioned in Lisboa s chronicle.  Liam Matthew Brockey.  Conquests of Memory: Franciscan Chronicles of the East Asian Church in the Early Modern Period . \u003cbr\u003e\n A good copy of this important work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MARCOS de Lisboa.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859646619983,"sku":"L3716","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3716-2.jpg?v=1781793734"},{"product_id":"vitelleschi-mutio-trans","title":"VITELLESCHI, Mutio, trans.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy the scarce first edition of three most interesting accounts of Jesuit missions in Ethiopia, China and Vietnam – with the first description in print of Tonkin, two further editions appeared in Milan and Parma the same year. These texts have survived only in their Italian translations (Backer-Sommervogel), made by Mutio Vitelleschi, (1563-1645), Sixth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, and professor of theology and philosophy at the Roman College. Dated Gongorà 1627, Pedro de Almeida’s ‘lettera annua’ discusses the state of the Catholic faith in 1626-7 in Ethiopia, a country ruled by a Christian emperor and the seat of several monasteries. Among the facts recounted are the Abissinians’ return to their ‘Alexandrine Masses’ in Ethiopian despite Jesuit preaching; the building of a church in Gorgorà; how Father Fernandez, in Anfràs, translated the Catholic ritual and wrote a manual for confessors in Ethiopian; meetings with Ras Zelachristo (the emperor’s brother); rituals of Abissinian monks invoking demons, and many other missionary encounters providing a priceless portrayal of early C17 Ethiopian culture in the main cities and provinces. Dated 1626, the letter of Emmanuel Diaz opens with the three new Chinese missions established that year, proceeding to a section on temporal authority in China (with a mention of the emperor’s chief eunuch), and specific accounts concerning Beijing and other cities, including miracles such as the healing of a young Christian girl. Dated 1626, the last account was written by Father Baldinotti, the first missionary to visit Tonkin. It tells of his arrival aboard a Portuguese merchant ship, with the Japanese Jesuit Giulio Piani, so that Baldinotti ‘could act as confessor and witness the state of the faith in that kingdom and whether it was ready to receive God’s word’. Welcomed by the king, they attended several of his feasts, with elephant tournaments and horse races; the mission was difficult to establish, because of a ‘Moor’, a spy, who showed the Christians in a bad light. The king asked Baldinotti to teach his eunuch ‘the things of the sky’, i.e., astronomy, because he was known to be a fine mathematician. A fine collection of ground-breaking accounts of early C17 Africa and Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VITELLESCHI, Mutio, trans.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868671549775,"sku":"L2019","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2019-2.jpg?v=1781793662"},{"product_id":"feynes-henri-de-tourval-jean-loiseau-de","title":"FEYNES, Henri de; TOURVAL, Jean Loiseau de","description":"\u003cp\u003e.First edition of a pioneering first-hand account of explorer Henri de Feynes  voyage to the East Indies and China, the first Frenchman to visit them. It was translated by Jean Loiseau de Tourval, a Frenchman renowned at the time within English literary circles for his extensive translations, who came to London in 1603 and spied for King James I. In fact, this edition precedes the French original, which was not published until 1630. Until the late 16.th. century, travel to these parts of the world had been limited to a handful of European explorers such as Marco Polo (1254-1324) and Niccolo de  Conti (c.1395-1469) and missionary priests. De Feynes  journey marks the beginning of greater Western interest in the far East, as merchants increasingly followed in his footsteps. Setting out from Paris in 1608, possibly at the behest of King Henry IV, de Feynes spent three months travelling by land through the Middle East, joining the Baghdad caravan at Aleppo on the way to Isfahan, before advancing through Hormuz and onto India. He continues onto Goa and travels across India, touring Sri Lanka and the islands of Southern Asia, before settling briefly in Canton, modern Guangzhou, in early 1609. The city was the only place foreign merchants and travellers were allowed to stay, and it remains one of the world s busiest mercantile hubs. He returned via ship, by way of Mozambique, to Lisbon.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..On his travels, the author comments extensively on the size and beauty of each city, comparing their magnitude to cities in France, as well as local customs, religion, and exotic foods such as melon and pineapple. He makes one of the earliest references to coffee, which he calls  caahiette . Particular admiration is expressed for the Mogul palace, likely belonging to Jahangir (1569-1627), the fourth Mogul emperor. He also notes the extensive Dutch and Portuguese presence in many of the East Indian islands. Arriving in China, he describes the thriving silk industry and how silk is made, in addition to the traditional practice of female foot-binding and cormorant fishing, a technique whereby a loose snare is fastened to the bird, preventing him from swallowing larger fish, allowing fishermen to access to those that are regurgitated. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..A rare account of early travel and exploration in the Far East..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FEYNES, Henri de; TOURVAL, Jean Loiseau de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868696486223,"sku":"K180","price":35000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_2833-copy.jpg?v=1781793452"},{"product_id":"purchas-samuel-1","title":"PURCHAS, Samuel.","description":"\u003cp\u003eAmong the double-page maps – here remarkably fresh and clean, in very fine impression, with wide outer margins, and without repairs – shines Henry Briggs’ map of North America, produced by R. Elstracke before 1622. ‘The first printed map in English to show California as an island, it is one of the most important of the time. As a composite, place names are recorded reflecting the nationality of the discoverer, in English, French or Spanish’, with a note engraved in the map stating ‘California sometymes supposed to be a part of ye westerne continent, but since by a Spanish Charte taken by ye Hollanders it is found to be a goodly Ilande: the length of the west shoare beeing about 500 leagues’ (D. Rudderman Coll.). There is also a map of Virginia, published in 1606 after John Smith’s expedition, and one of Sir William Alexander’s voyages, illustrating New England, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The map of China – present in vols III and V – titled in English and Chinese characters, is derived ‘from Luo Hongxian’s general map in his “Guangyu Tu” atlas of 1555’, with the addition of inset pictures (Shirley II, p.1650).\u003c\/p\u003e  \n\n\u003cp\u003eA fine set of the first edition of this most famous illustrated collection of travel narratives, together with the fourth ed. of ‘Purchas His Pilgrimage’ printed in 1626. The most complete early encyclopaedia of American travel, summarising all the major expeditions to North and South America up to the 1620s, from Columbus to William Hudson’s voyage on the Half-Moon, Smith’s expeditions to Virginia, and those carried out by the Spaniards and Dutch on the West Coast. It includes dozens of stunning engraved maps of North and South America, the North Pole, China, the Middle East, and Greenland, among others, as well as woodcut facsimile renditions of Arabic documents, Ottoman tughras, Mughal illumination, and illustrated Mesoamerican manuscripts. ‘Purchas obtained the use of the copperplates from Hondius’ “Atlas Minor” (1607) […]. The great majority of the maps are from this source, and are here printed as part of the text. […] Purchas had further maps engraved: these include maps of India, China, Greenland, North America and Nova Scotia.’\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eSamuel Purchas (1577-1626) was a cleric in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Whilst he never travelled further than a few hundred miles from his native town, he edited a collection of unpublished manuscripts left to him by Richard Hakluyt (hence the second title ‘Hakluytus Posthumous’), to which he added reports of sailors returning from their travels. The result was ‘Purchas His Pilgrimes’. ‘This great geographical collection is a continuation and enlargement of Hakluyt’s “The Principal Navigations”. At the death of Hakluyt there was left a large collection of voyages in manuscript which came into the hands of Purchas, who added to them many more voyages and travels […]. Purchas followed the general plan of Hakluyt, but he frequently put the accounts into his own words […]. The main divisions of the work fall into two parts: the first covering the world known to Ptolemy, the second coming down to Purchas’ own day. This fine collection includes the accounts of Cortés and Pizarro, Drake, Cavendish, John and Richard Hawkins, Quiros, Magellan, van Noort, Spilbergen, and Barents, as well as the categories of Portuguese voyages to the East Indies, Jesuit voyages to China and Japan, East India Company voyages, and the expeditions of the Muscovy Company’ (Hill). The four vols examine ancient voyages, customs and languages (e.g., the peregrinations of the Apostles and Patriarchs), the circumnavigation of the globe, explorations in Africa, Arabia, Persia, and India, voyages to Japan, China, the Philippines, and expeditions to the Middle and Far East. The fifth vol., also on world exploration, is considered the ‘fourth and best ed.’ (Sabin) of another travel work published by Purchas in the 1610s, especially important for the accounts of William Hudson’s explorations in North America.\u003c\/p\u003e  \n\n\u003cp\u003eThe double-page maps of North America are remarkably detailed on the coastal areas, showing the Hudson River, dozens of locations in California, Texas, Mexico, Newfoundland, New Britain, Canada, and the Caribbean. A highlight are the woodcut reproductions of unusual alphabets, e.g., hieroglyphs, ancient magical alphabets, and cabbalistic, as well as Arabic, Glagolitic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Dalmatian, and others. Purchas also included woodcut reproductions – among the earliest instances of facsimile in print – of Middle Eastern and South Asian documents (e.g., a letter in Arabic from Sharefoo Boobackar, King of Moyela; a letter in Bani, the Tughra of the Ottoman Sultan) and Ottoman seals, which he found among the East India papers he had access to thanks to acquaintances among the company’s directors. Astounding are the two dozen woodcuts reproducing Mexican illustrated manuscripts with detailed captions and explanations. ‘The idea of a visual compendium of all known examples of a given class of Mexican antiquities was first attempted by Purchas. […] He commissioned line drawings of manuscripts previously owned by Hakluyt and Thevet. […] After Purchas’ death, these manuscripts became part of the collection of John Selden, who bequeathed them, in turn, to the Bodleian Library’ (Miller, p.5).\u003c\/p\u003e  \n\n \u003cp\u003eFrom the Library of the Admiralty Office overlooking Horse Guards, in Whitehall, formerly the administrative headquarter of the Royal Navy. A most appropriate provenance for a book of great voyages.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PURCHAS, Samuel.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868710609231,"sku":"L4539","price":97500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/purchas-1.jpg?v=1781793407"},{"product_id":"wang-shuhe-ed-boym-micha_-ed-cleyer-andreas","title":"WANG, Shuhe, [ed. BOYM, Micha‚âà√á], ed. CLEYER, Andreas.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this beautifully illustrated collection of works of Chinese medicine, assembled by the Polish Jesuit missionary Micha‚âà√á Boym (c.1612-59) and plagiarised by the editor Andreas Cleyer (1634-c.97), chief physician to the Dutch East India Company. Most of the work is on circulatory physiology and the diagnostic uses of the pulse, the first being by the second century AD Chinese physician Wang Shuhe and the second excerpted from the ancient Chinese medical text called Huangi Neijing or  Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor.  Intersected with the latter are Boym s own observations on the Chinese system of diagnosis through the pulse. Shuhe s work contains woodcuts providing diagrammatic representations of various pulse rhythms, while Boym provides tables from the Inner Canon giving the number of breaths and the corresponding beat of the pulse according to both Chinese and European time. Another tract by Shuhe describes herbal medicines to be used in conjunction with diagnosis through the pulse, giving their Chinese names and describing each one. The thirty striking etchings are reproductions of Chinese anatomical illustrations depicting the circulatory system in its entirety and also the specific channels by which the major organs communicate with the head, as well as the major organs themselves. There is also an illustration of the correct method for taking a pulse and another of hands showing the three pulse locations on the wrist. A final tract on diagnosis according to the colour of the tongue is illustrated with thirty-six annotated woodcut diagrams. \u003cbr\u003e\n Micha‚âà√á Boym was born in Lviv, then Poland, and joined the Jesuits at Krakow before travelling as a missionary to China in 1643. He was one of the first westerners to travel extensively in China and produced a series of maps of the regions as well as Chinese flora.  These works, which were sent by Father Philippe Couplet (1623-93) to Batavia in 1658 for transportation to Europe, were, because of the disdain of the Dutch East India Company for the Jesuits, deprived of the name of their author   The plagiarising editor added to it some pieces translated from Chinese, probably by [Boym], which had not been sent from Canton until 1669 and 1670. He had published some part of these tracts two years previously as smaller works  (Sommervogel).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WANG, Shuhe, [ed. BOYM, Micha_], ed. CLEYER, Andreas.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868719685967,"sku":"L4488","price":13500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4488-wang-2.jpg?v=1781793359"},{"product_id":"rosaccio-giusppe","title":"ROSACCIO, Giusppe.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA lovely sammelband of rare scientific works by the Italian cosmographer, geographer, physician, astrologer and traveller Giuseppe Rosaccio (c.1530-c.1620). Rare fourth ed. of first work, first pub. 1592; third ed. of second, first pub. 1593; extremely rare third ed. of third, first pub. 1593; and extremely rare second ed. of fourth, first published 1594.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe first work, charmingly illustrated, is a geographical and astronomical texts describing the earthly and heavenly spheres, with lunar tables. The characterful maps depict the major continents with their chief cities, mountain ranges, rivers and lakes, with occasional fanciful depictions of tribal tents, trading vessels, hippocampi and giant sea fish. Australia and New Guinea are depicted as one contiguous land mass with Antarctica, with trees and shrubs, fierce-looking mountains and even what appear to be subterranean fires.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe second work is a cosmographical history of the world, beginning with the creation to the age of the biblical patriarchs and Noah's Flood, 1656 years, and running to the modern day, with dates of the elections of popes, reigns of kings and queens, battles and extraordinary astrological, meteorological and medical phenomena, freakish births, etc. The third contains a brief discourse on the nature of time, preceding tables of astrological ephemerides describing the movements of the moon, sun and planets: the lunar and solar tables cover the years 1594-1612 but the planetary table - showing which planets will govern fertility or sterility in which year - runs to 1705. The final work is a brief philosophical and medical treatise on the perfect nature and proportions of man, which ends with a brief annual regimen of diet, bathing and exercise for preserving good health: no honey in February, sweets and sweet wines in March, don t wash your head in January or October, etc. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOriginally from Pordenone, Rosaccio was an itinerant philosopher who moved around the noble courts of Italy and travelled to Constantinople. He spent time in Venice and then from the 1590s was based permanently in Florence, healing the sick and selling elixirs [and presumably these tracts] from a market stall set up in a square outside the grand ducal palace (Edina Adam, The Personification of Venice in Master Drawings, 55. 3 (2017), p. 313). It was during this period that he also published several separate planispheres and maps.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROSACCIO, Giusppe.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868720832847,"sku":"L4241","price":3850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4241-Rosaccio-7.jpg?v=1781793353"},{"product_id":"mustafa-ibn-abd-al-rahman","title":"MUSTAFA IBN ABD AL-RAHMAN.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe genre of ‚Äòadvice literature‚Äô was popular not only in the 16th century Islamic world, but at the same time in Western Europe, giving readers recommendations on how to be a good ruler, minister, or Muslim\/Christian. The author of this work identifies it as a translation of the Pand-nama of Khwaja ‚ÄòAbdullah al-Ansari,‚Äô the Afghan polymath of the 11th century. The text also includes a second text entitled the Tyhfat al-Wuzara, for which no author is given. The popularity of the genre meant that such texts were common, often associated with the great authorities of the past to lend them weight. The text is given the title Tuhfat al-Salatin (a Gift for Sultans) and signed by Mustafa ibn Abd al-Rahman, who also identifies himself as the translator ‚Äì and presumably ‚Äì editor. This would make this an autograph copy of unusual quality, doubtless intended for presentation. Indeed, the lengthy dedication to Sultan Murad III (r. 1574-95), whose name appears highlighted in gold throughout, may indicate that this manuscript was a gift for a sultan in more than name only. A further manuscript signed by the same scribe, also written in a strong nasta‚Äôliq, was sold to Sotheby‚Äôs London, 24 April 2013, lot 28.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe quality of the calligraphy throughout this manuscript is exceptional, more typical of single-page calligraphic compositions than full manuscripts. The effect is enhanced with the use of dyed paper, gold speckling, and extensive chrysography, as well as beautifully gilt-tooled binding. Particularly distinctive is the broad qalam used throughout this manuscript, giving rise to a more muscular script that distinguishes it from Safavid manuscripts. Other high-quality Ottoman manuscripts in nasta‚Äôliq include a copy of al-durra al-yatima fi al-mada‚Äôih al-karima which sold in at Christie‚Äôs, 26 April 2018, lot 193, and another anthology which sold 12 October 2004, lot 198. That manuscript also had 10 lines of nasta‚Äôliq to the page, as well as erased seal impressions suggesting it had been in the royal library. This would strengthen the suggestion that this manuscript was of a quality to be presented to the sultan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis manuscript was part of the collection of Constantino del Franco (1899-1968), a renowned bibliophile living in the South of Italy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MUSTAFA IBN ABD AL-RAHMAN.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868724306255,"sku":"L4856","price":36000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"missal-6","title":"[MISSAL]","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce first edition, only the second work to be printed in Armenian by the press of the Catholic Church s Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fidei, with Armenian and Latin texts in parallel, translated by the Ottoman Armenian interpreter Giovanni Molino (c.1592-1643).   \u003cbr\u003e\n The Roman Church saw the Eastern Christians as a fruitful field for proselytism. In the C17th the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1622 as part of the Counter-Reformation, undertook a printing programme in Armenian and other languages designed to provide missionaries and new converts alike with texts to support evangelisation and Catholic devotion  (Nersessian, The Parikian Collection of Early Armenian Printing at Eton College Library (Eton: 2016), p. 7). Molino, born in Ankara, was from the Armenian community of the Ottoman Empire. Sent to Rome as a child, as was common for talented Armenian and other non-Muslim boys, he was educated at the College of Neophytes, a school for Jewish and Muslim converts. He evidently returned to his native Ankara, since he arrived in Venice from there in 1626, where he began work as an interpreter. Molino was heavily involved in the project to print an Armenian Bible in Rome on behalf of the Sacra Congregatio; and travelled to Rome in order to study printing and advance this ultimately fruitless work:  I put myself   to learn the art of printing   I went with hope and desire to the city of Rome, where for four years, with hard work, pain and torment   that it is not possible to explain in writing and [only] my Creator knows   I procured punches and matrices, ornaments and floral initials, with sizeable hardship  (in El_bieta _wi_cicka, ed., Dictionary of Italian-Turkish (1641) by Giovanni Molino (Leiden: 2020), p. 52). Molino returned to Venice in October 1641, having completed work on the Missal, taking with him a set of Armenian type. In 1642 he was able to produce an Armenian Psalter and in 1643 the Yisus Ordi of Nerses IV. He died in 1643 in Milan, endeavouring to return to Constantinople and his family. He left behind his Armenian types, which were used in numerous Venetian publications (ibid., p. 53).  \u003cbr\u003e\n This was the second production using Armenian type from the press of the Sacra Congregatio, after Cardinal Robert Bellarmine s catechism, Dichiaratione piu copiosa della dottrina Christiana, published in parallel Italian and Armenian in 1630, extremely rare and apparently unknown to Mah é (see below); an Armenian alphabet was issued under the auspices of the Sacra Congregatio around this time, but not by their press. Meanwhile, the first printed Armenian missal had been issued the previous year in New Julfa, Isfahan.  Around 1623 a new phase began in the relations between the Armenian Church and the Roman Church, followed by a new expansion of Catholic publishing, due notably to the founding of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide and its printing house. Also at this time, the Armenian religious authorities appealed to Rome for the creation of a printing house and school for the use of Armenians   The work of the commission set up   and charged with correcting the Armenian version was not crowned with success. It was necessary to wait until 1642 for a new   Ordo divinae missae Armenorum to be printed  (Kevorkian, p. 154). All the Armenian types used by the Sacra Congregatio were those cut by Robert Granjon in 1579 (ibid., p. 153).  Giuseppe Renato Imperiali (1651-1737) was an Italian cardinal and bibliophile who amassed a vast library of over 15,000 items, which was dispersed at the end of the C18. This book appears on p. 33 of the printed catalogue, Bibliothecae Josephi Renati Imperialis, prepared by his secretary and published in Rome in 1711.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[MISSAL]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868838175055,"sku":"L4774","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4774-armenian-3.jpg?v=1781792728"},{"product_id":"missal-7","title":"[MISSAL]","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this abbreviated Armenian missal containing the liturgy for the mass according to the rite of the Armenian Uniats, attractively printed and charmingly illustrated, in an Armenian style binding with manuscript additions. It also contains corrections to the divine office and hymnal:  The alterations are made to the texts of the Breviary printed in Amsterdam in 1664. [They] are purely doctrinal, designed to accommodate Catholic doctrines such as the procession of the Holy Spirit from the  Father and the Son,  the exclusion of  who was crucified  from the Trisagion, references to the Primacy of the Pope etc.  (Vrej Nerses Nersessian, Catalogue of Early Armenian Books (London: British Library), p. 55). One of two issues in the same year, this has separate paginations for the two parts.   \u003cbr\u003e\n 'The Roman Church   saw the Eastern Christians as a fruitful field for proselytism   In the C17th the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1622 as part of the Counter-Reformation, undertook a printing programme in Armenian and other languages designed to provide missionaries and new converts alike with texts to support evangelisation and Catholic devotion  (Nersessian, The Parikian Collection of Early Armenian Printing at Eton College Library (Eton: 2016), p. 7)..  \u003cbr\u003e\n All the Armenian types used by the Sacra Congregatio were those cut by Robert Granjon in 1579 (Jean-Pierre Mah é, Catalogue des  Incunables  Arm éniens (Genève: 1986), p. 153).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[MISSAL]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868855247183,"sku":"L4773","price":6250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-12_at_6.00.05_PM.png?v=1781283626","url":"https:\/\/www.sokol.co.uk\/collections\/asia.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}