Cartas que os Padres e Irmãos da Companhia de Jesus escreverão dos reinos de Japão & China. 1598

Cartas que os Padres e Irmãos da Companhia de Jesus escreverão dos reinos de Japão & China. 1598

IESVS Cartas qve os Padres e Irmãos da Companhia de Iesus escreuerão dos Reynos do Iapão & China aos da mesma COmpanhia da India, & Europa, desdo anno de 1549. até o de 1580. Primeiro tomo. Nellas se conta o principio, socesso, & bondade da Christandade daquellas partes, & varios costumes, & falsos ritos da gentilidade. Em Evora: por Manoel de Lyra, 1598.

[]2, A-Z, Aa-Zz, Aaa-Nnn8, Ooo6; [2], 478 [de 481] ff.; 250 mm.

VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT EDITION of this 16th century work. The publication of the letters of the Jesuit brothers in the East constitutes an important legacy, reflecting not only the evangelizing effort carried out by the Company founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola, but also the interesting news they give from the areas of the East where they were, as well as the mentality of European evangelizers. The enormous success of the editions of Jesuit letters confirms the appetite and interest of a vast public at the time in everything that gave news about this distant and unknown world.

It will be interesting, therefore, to look at the set of editions of letters from the Jesuit brothers in the 16th century, contextualizing the present edition in the vast scope of its publication.

The first edition of a letter made in Portugal, is made known by D. Manuel (see D. Manuel, v. II, pp. 262-271) and is titled Copia de una carta, que escriuio de la India el Father M. Gaspar de la compañia de Jesus a los brothers del collegio de Jesus de Coymbra: received this year from MDL translated from Portuguese in Castellano, printed in Coimbra, probably by João Barreira and João Álvares in 1550.

The following year the following leaflets were published, all from Coimbra and by the same printers: Copy of a letter that embio de la India el padre Enrrique Enrriquez, de la compañia de Iesu al padre maestre Simon preposito de la dicha cõpañia en Portugal [ ...]; Copy of some letters from the master priest Frãcisco and from the priest M. Gaspar, and other priests from his company of Jesus, who wrote from India to the brothers of the college of Jesus [...]; Copy of some letters sent from Brazil by Father Nobrega from the company of Jesus: and other priests who are under his obedience [...]. The works have 8, 16 and 14 folios, respectively.
In 1555, also in Coimbra, João Álvares published a copy of some letters from some priests and brothers of the company of Jesus who wrote in India, Japan and Brazil to priests and brothers of the same company in Portugal [...], it has 33 folios and the first letter written by Fernão Mendes Pinto with numerous information about the East.

The first large collection of letters from the East was published in Spanish with the title Copia de algunas Cartas que los padres y hermanos de la company de Jesus, que andan en la India, y otras parte orientales, escriuieron a los de la compañia de Portugal . Since the year of MDLVII it has been since lxj. It was printed by João Barreira and João Alvares in 1562.

A collection was also published in Spanish with all previously published letters exclusively from Japan. year of MDXLVIII that began until the past of LXIII, printed by João Barreira and João Álvares in 1565 [the colophon is from 1564], this being the edition pointed out by Inocêncio when referring to the error in the Academy catalogue. The 1570 edition then came out, in its second variant, consisting of letters written between 1549 and 1566, the largest published until then. It is worth noting that it was only in 1588 that Jesuit letters were published again and only in 1598 that this edition came out of the presses of Manuel de Lira, in Évora, constituting the great compilation of letters from the century. XVI in two volumes, of which this copy only has the first.

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