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CHRISTOVÃO FERREIRA (1580-c.1652)
Narratio persecutionis adversus Christianos excitatae in variis Japoniae regnis ann. M.DC.XXVIII. M.DC.XXIX. M.DC.XXX, translated by Jean Bolland. Antwerp: Johannes Meurs, 1635. 8° (151 x 94mm). Woodcut printer's device on title and woodcut initials. (Lightly browned, occasional light spotting, neat marginal repairs to title.) Contemporary semi-flexible vellum, manuscript title on spine, speckled edges (a little marked and cockled, neat repair to corner of lower cover, recased retaining original neatly repaired endleaves, slightly soiled); modern green morocco slipcase. Provenance: early shelf mark and traces of bookplate on upper pastedown -- [sale, Sotheby's, London, 25 June 1992, lot 468].
FIRST LATIN EDITION, RARE. The work describes events in Japan in 1628-1630, mostly compiled by the Jesuit Provincial, Christovão Ferreira (Japanese name Chuan Sawano). The 1620s witnessed considerable missionary activity in Japan, together with increasingly severe persecution: in 1626, more than 3,000 converts were baptised, while the Christian population may have exceeded one hundred times that number. The volume lists many of those martyred during the years 1627-1630. In the course of these persecutions, Ferreira himself was tortured and offered a choice between death or apostasy; he chose the latter and converted to Zen Buddhism, publishing a pamphlet against Christianity in 1636. He later published a work on astronomy based on Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of nature (Kenko Benzetsu) in Japanese in the 1640s. Plagued with regret for renouncing his faith, he was martyred c.1652. The first edition having been published in Italian in Rome and Milan in 1635, this Latin edition was followed by a French edition published in Paris in the same year. This is the only copy recorded by ABPC since 1975. Not in Sommervogel or Pagès; Cordier, Japonica, 323-324.
Narratio persecutionis adversus Christianos excitatae in variis Japoniae regnis ann. M.DC.XXVIII. M.DC.XXIX. M.DC.XXX, translated by Jean Bolland. Antwerp: Johannes Meurs, 1635. 8° (151 x 94mm). Woodcut printer's device on title and woodcut initials. (Lightly browned, occasional light spotting, neat marginal repairs to title.) Contemporary semi-flexible vellum, manuscript title on spine, speckled edges (a little marked and cockled, neat repair to corner of lower cover, recased retaining original neatly repaired endleaves, slightly soiled); modern green morocco slipcase. Provenance: early shelf mark and traces of bookplate on upper pastedown -- [sale, Sotheby's, London, 25 June 1992, lot 468].
FIRST LATIN EDITION, RARE. The work describes events in Japan in 1628-1630, mostly compiled by the Jesuit Provincial, Christovão Ferreira (Japanese name Chuan Sawano). The 1620s witnessed considerable missionary activity in Japan, together with increasingly severe persecution: in 1626, more than 3,000 converts were baptised, while the Christian population may have exceeded one hundred times that number. The volume lists many of those martyred during the years 1627-1630. In the course of these persecutions, Ferreira himself was tortured and offered a choice between death or apostasy; he chose the latter and converted to Zen Buddhism, publishing a pamphlet against Christianity in 1636. He later published a work on astronomy based on Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of nature (Kenko Benzetsu) in Japanese in the 1640s. Plagued with regret for renouncing his faith, he was martyred c.1652. The first edition having been published in Italian in Rome and Milan in 1635, this Latin edition was followed by a French edition published in Paris in the same year. This is the only copy recorded by ABPC since 1975. Not in Sommervogel or Pagès; Cordier, Japonica, 323-324.
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