ASIA. - JAPAN. Histoire de ce qui s'est passé au Royaume du - Lot 6

ASIA. - JAPAN. Histoire de ce qui s'est passé au Royaume du Japon, ès années 1625, 1626 & 1627. Tirées des Lettres adressées au R. Père Mutio Viteleschi, General de la Compagnie de Jesus (...). A Paris, chez Sébastien Cramoisy, 1633. in-8, limp vellum (contemporary binding). FIRST EDITION OF THE VERY RARE FRENCH TRANSLATION of this collection of letters written by various Jesuit missionaries in Japan during the years 1625-1627. These letters bear precious witness to relations between the missionaries and the Japanese authorities at the height of the anti-Christian repression that raged in that country from 1614 to 1638. Interesting information on persecutions and executions, as well as on Japanese customs and habits. This correspondence was collected and published by the Jesuit Giovanni Battista BONELLI (1589-1638) in Rome in 1631, under the title "Lettere annue del Giappone". The present translation, by Jean Vireau (1558-1638), is augmented by the first French translation of a letter by François Traxillo Vasquez containing the story of the martyrdom of three Jesuits in Paraguay, slaughtered for the sake of Saint Foy by the Indians of the Province of Urnay in 1628 (pages 474-485). Copy from the former Monastère de l'Annonciade in Paris, according to a handwritten bookplate on the flyleaf. Worn, some dampstaining and yellowed pages.