{"title":"Jesuitica","description":"\u003cp\u003eBooks related to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit history, missions, theology, education, and scholarship.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"jesuit-letters","title":"JESUIT LETTERS","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of this rare, early valuable collection of nine letters from the Jesuit missions in Asia written by Diaz, Froes and others between the years 1556 and 1559 and dedicated by the printer-publisher to Vittoria Farnese dalla Rovere, Duchess of Urbino. The letters include some of the earliest first-hand accounts of China and Japan to reach Western Europe. The first provides a description of Ceylon, the Moluccas and the East Indies, the third tells of events in Goa and Indo-China, the fourth deals with the Moslems, the fifth with Malabar and Cochin, the sixth with China and Japan and the seventh with Travancore. The second and last two comprise only brief extracts of longer works. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In almost every case the first reliable accounts of the Far East which reached Europe were letters from the Jesuit missionaries full of first hand information: social, cultural, political, ethnographic, commercial, geographical, economic and religious. It was the detail and apparent accuracy of their scholarly yet practical reports which prompted merchants, seamen and governments to follow them in opening up to European interests the farthest corners of the known world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JESUIT LETTERS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816123474255,"sku":"SN1166","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-11.20.56.png?v=1781795285"},{"product_id":"acosta-jose-de","title":"ACOSTA, Jos é de","description":"\u003cp\u003eThird edition of these pioneering treatises on the geography, anthropology and evangelisation of South America, previously published in Salamanca in 1588\/1589 and 1595. Jos é de Acosta (1540-1600) was among the first Jesuit missionaries to embark for the Spanish New World. He spent much of his life in Peru. The main settlement of the order was at that time in the village of Juli, on Lake Titicaca. Here, a college was set up to study the languages of the natives, while the newly-funded Jesuit printing press issued the first printed book of the Americas in 1577. Later, Acosta moved to Lima and taught theology at the university. In the Third Council of Lima (1582-1583) reorganising the American church, Acosta took a very active part and became its official historian. Following an adventurous journey through Mexico, in 1587 he head back to Spain, where he was appointed head of the Jesuit college in Valladolid and later Salamanca. A prolific writer, he is mostly famous for his very successful Historia natural y moral de las Indias. This knowledgeable, realistic and detailed description of the New World was sought after and soon translated into Italian, French, German, Dutch and English. The Natura novi orbis opening this edition represents the early draft of the Historia. In it, Acosta provided the first account of altitude sickness, which affected him while crossing the Andes. He also divided the Amerindians into three categories, acknowledging the Incas and Aztecs as fairly advanced societies in the civilisation process. The second part comprises a very innovative essay on evangelisation. Acosta struggles to demonstrated to his contemporaries that Amerindians were part of the original God s plan for mankind and thus were not inferior creatures undeserved of being Christianised and saved. In grounding his argument, the idea that the first inhabitants of America migrated from the biblical world (specifically from Asia), played a crucial role. Indeed, he was the first writer to postulate the existence of a land bridge at the northern or southern extremities of the two continents, long before the discovery of the Bering Strait. In his missionary zeal, Acosta was much concerned with the preparation and morality of priests, who he encouraged to study the aboriginal languages as an essential part of their duties.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ACOSTA, Jos é de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127439183,"sku":"L1787","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1787-Acosta-666-e1436265905365.jpg?v=1781795273"},{"product_id":"bressani-francesco-giuseppe","title":"BRESSANI, Francesco Giuseppe","description":"\u003cp\u003eExceptionally rare and important first edition of this work by the Jesuit Bressiani giving the first general description in Italian of the Jesuit missions in Canada among the Huron and Iroquois tribes.  Francesco Giuseppe Bressani published his Breve Relatione in Italian in 1653. It is the only part of the voluminous Jesuit Relations or Relations des J ésuites that is in Italian. .. It is a factual account of the years Bressani spent in New France as a missionary among the settlers and Native people. At the same time it is a vision of the possibilities of future Italian settlement in the New World. As a result Bressani's chronicle may be examined as a testament to his religious faith and to his imagination in constructing the image of a martyr.  Joseph J. Pivato. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Bressani was born in Rome in 1612 and in 1626 joined the Society of Jesus. In 1642 Bressani was in Canada where he first worked in the French settlement of Quebec and the following year was sent to Trois Rivières to the Algonquin mission. In April, 1644, on his way west to the Huron missions he was captured by the Iroquois who killed one of his Huron companions and then took Bressani, a French boy, and five other Huron captives south into the territory which is now New York State. They tortured him for two months, before he was ransomed by Dutch settlers at Fort Orange and sent back to France in November, 1644. The following year he was back in Canada working at the Huron Missions until their destruction by Iroquois attacks four years later. In 1649 a war-party of some twelve hundred warriors attacked Huronia. By this time many Iroquois had firearms which they had procured from the Dutch on the Hudson River, the Jesuits were forced to retreat east to the territory of Quebec. Bressani, however, continued to work with the scattered and fugitive Hurons for some months back in the original Quebec settlements. Only his failing health forced him to return to Italy in 1650. He opens his description with reference to Pope Urban VIII letter of 1638 that forbade the enslavement of Natives in the New World. As subjects of the missions the natives were recognised as human beings with souls that needed to be saved. It is clear that Bressani shared these ideals and enthusiastically followed them in his mission work. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Breve Relatione is organised into three parts. The first presents a very positive image of the missions: Bressani describes the geography and vegetation of Canada, and then deals with the Native people. The second describes the conversion of the Native people and the many difficulties encountered by the Jesuits who arrived to convert them. The third gives us graphic details about the suffering, torture, and martyrdom of the missionaries including the author. Bressani goes into great detail describing the society of the Hurons. He lists their food and feast celebrations, their communal singing and dances, explains marriage practices and compares them to those of the ancient Jews. He points out that in their system of government tribal chiefs are determined by succession by way of the mother's line. In their system of justice crimes of theft and murder are dealt with through fines and gift giving for reparation. It is clear that he admires these people for their honesty, hospitality, and inherent sense of right and wrong. He also describes the many obstacles the Jesuits encountered: the harsh climate, river rapids and waterfalls, the dangers of the journeys due to Iroquois attacks, the problems with the different Indian languages, conflict with the Indian medicine men, and the plagues which killed large groups of Natives. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the second part he includes his letter to his superior in which he recounts his capture by the Iroquois, his tortures, forced travels, beatings, starvation, mutilations, and final rescue. The third and final part of the Breve Relatione deals with the sufferings of the missionaries at the hands of the Iroquois in which Bressani gives several accounts of torture and martyrdom, reproduced from other volumes of the Jesuit Relations written in French, including the martyrdom of Father Isaac Jogues, Father Charles Garnier, and Noel Chabanel. He also recounts the fate of Father Anne de Noue who died of cold when he got lost in the snow.  In the Italian we can almost hear Bressani's voice as he argues that their (the Hurons) intellectual capabilities and skills are as good as those of any bright Europeans. They are capable of learning and knowledge and of showing faith. What we find in the first chapters of Breve Relatione is an image of the noble savage, long before this idea was expressed by Jean Jacques Rousseau in 1778.  Joseph J. Pivato.. An excellent copy of this exceptionally rare work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BRESSANI, Francesco Giuseppe","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128127311,"sku":"K20","price":13500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K20-2-1.jpg?v=1781795271"},{"product_id":"jesuit-relations","title":"JESUIT RELATIONS","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst Italian edition of an epistolary account of the Jesuit missions from all over the early modern world, translated from Spanish. It concerns in particular the vast maritime domain of the Portuguese Empire, consisting of numerous strategical harbours on the coasts of Africa, South Asia and South America. This network was instrumental in controlling the trade of spices and precious metals, but offered also safe starting points for Catholic evangelisation. This collection of letters narrates travels to and fro and daily missionary life in Brazil, India, China, Japan and Ethiopia, providing details of the Jesuit activities, including mass conversions, as well as relevant information on local people, flora and fauna. Often, missives are sent to or from the St Paul s College of Goa, which was established about 1542 by Francis Xavier as the educational and cultural centre of the Jesuit expansion in the East, and housed the first printing press in India from 1556. These letters were highly sought after in secular Europe, often providing the only reliable information available on the political, economic, commercial and social conditions of large and increasingly important part of the globe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JESUIT RELATIONS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133992783,"sku":"L2144","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/avisi.jpg?v=1781795217"},{"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":"reserved-7","title":"RESERVED","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn uncommon edition of Nicolas Trigault s two earliest, important letters from China, sent in 1610 and 1611 to Cardinal Claudio Acquaviva in Rome. Trigault (1577-1628) was a Flemish Jesuit who carried out ground-breaking missionary work in China. Inspired by the activities of Matteo Ricci, Trigault founded new missions and encouraged the translation of European works on science and religion (including liturgies) into Chinese. A portrait of Trigault in Chinese costume (now at the New York Metropolitan Museum) was painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1617, when Trigault visited the Jesuit college in Antwerp to raise funds for his missions. The two letters in this edition were written shortly after his first arrival in Peking and contributed greatly, together with Ricci s texts, to bring in greater knowledge of China to Western Europeans. The 1610 missive is a beautifully-written and engaging factual and anecdotal survey, in the form of a travelogue, of the political, cultural and religious situation of China, including its government ( the King acknowledges no other God but himself ) and religious cults, and a description of the principles of the Chinese language (with  hieroglyphs  which only express  sounds , not vowels or consonants). The second letter is a long account focusing on the Jesuits   adventures  during their missionary work, from their flight from a house fire to meetings with local governors, the administration of holy water to native converts resembling more an exorcism rather than a Christian ritual, and the great difficulties they faced in obtaining a burial place for Matteo Ricci in Peking. Another edition of these influential letters was printed in Rome by Bartolomeo Zannetti in the same year, but no priority has been established.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RESERVED","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141922639,"sku":"L2727","price":5850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2727.jpg?v=1781795173"},{"product_id":"fitzherbert-thomas","title":"FITZHERBERT, Thomas","description":"\u003cp\u003eExtremely rare first edition of this important controversial work by the English Jesuit Thomas Fitzherbert, printed at the Jesuit College at St. Omer. Fitzherbert was the heir of a distinguished recusant family, the grandson of the noted jurist Sir Anthony Fitzherbert and a zealous defender of English Catholicism. In 1572, aged 20, he was imprisoned for recusancy and on release became acquainted with Parsons and Campion. In 1588 on the death of his wife, he removed to Spain and was active in the affairs of Catholic exiles and at one point charged with conspiracy to poison Queen Elizabeth. He was in fact closely watched by Elizabeth s spies and his name recurs in the state papers of the period. In 1601 he was ordained priest, acted for twelve years as the agent in Rome of the English clergy and in 1613 joined the Society of Jesus. He was successively superior of the English mission at Brussels and rector of the English college at Rome, remaining en poste almost until his death in 1640, at the remarkable age of 88,  an object of admiration and esteem, not only of Catholics, but even for those who differed from him in religion  Gillow II p. 285. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  In 1613, the Jesuit, Thomas Fitzherbert published one of a series of works attacking Andrewe s response to Bellarmine. Just as the earlier debate between Cranmer and Gardiner hinged in part on their reading of Origen, here too the reading of an Eastern Church Father was contested   in this case, John Chrysostom. Bellarmine had claimed that Chrysostom  approved the veneration of holy relics , citing his exhortation:  let us with great faith touch their reliques, to the end we may obtayne some benediction thereby . Andrews argued in response that Bellarmine was guilty of a mistranslation:  For in the Greeke    , is to touch the shyrne; but to touch the shrine, I thinke, is not to adore it . Fitzherbert wastes no time in accusing Andrews of small-minded pedantry in his response:  Doth he not therin shew himselfe to be a meere tryfler, caviller, and wrangler?  Andrews, Fitzherbert claims, is guilty of  cavilling only about a word, or two, as if all the wyght, and force of the place consisted therin . Nonetheless, he attempts to debate Andrews on his terms, arguing that, as Bellarmine suggests,  the Greeke word    .. although it do properly signify tangere, to touch, yet it includeth many tymes and act of veneration, or worship, yea sometimes of prayer . These verbs suggest worshipful touch, not mere neutral contact. Interestingly, his evidence for this claim is based not only on Christian sources but upon the  ancient kind of adoration with the hand, used among Paynims , and he cites lines from Homer, Euripides and other ancient authors for his defence.   Fitzherbert (also) enlisted a series of Roman writers as witness to his claim that the verb tangere could imply specifically worshipful contact, including Pliny s description of the touching of knees and chins by supplicants, and Virgil and Ovid on the touching of alters and tables when swearing an oath or praying. Most remarkably he quotes three lines from De Rerum Natura   a striking incursion of a supposedly atheistical poem into the midst of theological debate   to the effect  that the images of the Gods standing at the gates, had their right hands worne with the frequent touching of passengers .    The immense theological and intellectual stakes involved in grammatical interpretation had throughout the Reformation created a burgeoning awareness of the differences grammatical systems and the difficulty of reconciling them.  Joe Moshenska  Feeling Pleasures: The Sense of Touch in Renaissance England.  Besides further criticism of Barlow he also attacked John Donne s Pseudo-Martyr, which had been published in 1610 to persuade Catholics to take the  Oath of Allegeance.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  The well-known Jesuit college at St. Omer was founded by Father Parsons in 1592 or 1593. All Catholic education having been prohibited in England, several colleges had been founded by Englishmen on the Continent   at Douai, Rome, and Valladolid; their primary object was the education of the clergy. Father Parsons recognized the need of a college intended in the first instance for the laity, and for this purpose he chose a spot as near as possible to England. St. Omer was twenty-four miles from Calais.  Catholic Encyclopaedia. The printing press was set up a the College in 1608\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FITZHERBERT, Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816157159759,"sku":"L2218","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2218-3.jpg?v=1781794905"},{"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":"aquaviva-claudio","title":"AQUAVIVA, Claudio.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of the third edition of this important manual for Jesuit superiors. Cardinal Claudio Aquaviva (1543-1615) is one of the major figures of the Counter-Reformation and among those responsible for the Jesuits  enormous theological and political success in the C17. After a swift career in the echelons of the Jesuit Order, from the 1580s he devoted himself to the writing of works concerned with the education of Jesuit priests and the characteristics necessary to become good Superiors. First published in Rome in 1606,  Instructio  was based on one of several letters he wrote to Superiors of the Congregation  to offer counsels and directions to enable them to be of greater help to their subjects in their interior life  (Guibert,  Jesuits , 243). It lays down general guidelines seeking to  increase and confirm the soul of the Society , focusing on the Superiors  demeanour, the role of prayer and serious mistakes made by them in their daily pastoral care, e.g., ignoring the spiritual  illnesses  of their subjects and encouraging spiritual lassitude. Among the advice given so as to maintain and improve the spirituality of the Order was the use of Ignatius s spiritual exercises, oration and meditation. Aquaviva s advice to Superiors was integral to the shaping of the Congregation in the epoch of its Golden Age.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AQUAVIVA, Claudio.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816166236495,"sku":"L3264","price":850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-10.37.20.png?v=1781794871"},{"product_id":"vitelleschi-mutio","title":"[VITELLESCHI, Mutio?].","description":"\u003cp\u003eGood copies of these forged editions of three major Jesuit works probably compiled by Mutio Vitelleschi (1563-1645). He was the Sixth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, and professor of theology, philosophy and logic at Roman Collegia. These three works gathered together important texts for the continuing education of Jesuits worldwide, as reliable, approved reference manuals.  Directorium  is an introduction to the meaning, purpose and techniques for undertaking St Ignatius s spiritual exercises and meditation, spanning the course of a four-week retreat, on Christ s life and suffering. The  Epistolae  is a collection of letters from major figures of the Order (St Ignatius, Aquaviva, Mercuriano, Borgia, Laines and Vitelleschi) to superiors and members on theology and the Jesuits  spiritual mission. The third work, a detailed  Index generalis  of the  Institutiones , reveals the original context of these works, part of a 16-volume series called  Corpus institutionum societatis Jesu . Separately printed, they were found as stand-alone or bound, as in this case, in a sammelband of two or three. Whilst the first edition of the  Corpus  was published by Jan Meurs in 1635, the present copies were published two to three decades later by Jan Schipper in Amsterdam, without the license of the Society of Jesus. A distinction is the spelling  Joannem  with a J on the t-ps of the first and second, as well as the woodcut vignette of St Ignatius with the Latin motto on all three. Two theories have been put forward. First, a copy of the 1635 edition was seized in England during the Cromwellian era and sent to Amsterdam (Sommervogel V, 81, add.); or second, according to a Jesuit s account from the 1660s, copies of the original were found on board a Portuguese ship bound for Brazil, captured and taken to Holland during the Dutch-Portuguese War (1653-57) (Begheyn,  De Elzeviers , 65). Because Schipper often employed other printers for his publications, and on the basis of a close analysis of initials and ornaments, this edition has been attributed to the press of Daniel and\/or Louis III Elzevir in the years 1653-71 (Miert,  Een onopgemerkte , 131-38; Impe,  Corpus ). The pirated edition was probably intended for the Low Countries, where the Jesuits were flourishing; the early ownership of this copy can indeed be traced to Leuven. An important sammelband with editions of special bibliographical interest for Elzevir collectors unnoticed by Willems.  This volume was once in the library of Petrus Ludovicus Danes Casletanus (1683-1736), professor of theology, influenced by Scholasticism, at Leuven in the 1730s. The following owner, Henri-Joseph Rega (1690-1754), was a Dutch physician, rector at Leuven. His interest in Jesuit theology probably urged him to take sides against the spreading Jansenism, which led to a fall in student numbers. In the C19, it belonged to Antonius Joannes Philippus Wemaer, professor of Physics at Ghent, and to the convent of the Capuchins in Bruges.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[VITELLESCHI, Mutio?].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820341338447,"sku":"L3253","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_20191024_113751.jpg?v=1781794843"},{"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":"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":"le-jeune-paul-brebeuf-jean-de-perrault-julien","title":"LE JEUNE, Paul; BREBEUF, Jean de; PERRAULT, Julien.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A unique source for the early Jesuit missions to New France, an area which at its peak stretched from the Gulf of St Lawrence to Louisiana.  This Relation contains three reports: the first by Le Jeune, dated 28.th. Aug. 1635, ending on p.112; the second from the Huron country by Brebeuf, pp.113-206; and the third from Cape Breton, by Perrault, pp.207-219 . It paints a picture of the French colonisation of New France, North America and Cape Breton, relations with the inhabitants, and local First Nation culture. The Society of Jesus was granted a monopoly over the proselytizing of local inhabitants and produced yearly written reports detailing their progress until 1672, which were sent to Quebec to be checked and subsequently published in Paris. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..  The initial method of Jesuit missionaries like Paul Le Jeune was often to erect small, isolated, sedentary villages, or reductions, wherein the Montagnais would be instructed in the ways of agriculture, animal husbandry, and Christianity . .Le Jeune (1591-1664), writes the first and longest account of the present works dated August 28.th .1635.. He had ample experience with the indigenous people, having wintered with the Montagnais, the most southerly group of the Innu tribe, between 1633-34. He discusses Jesuit attempts to  civilise  and convert the so called  Sauvages , describes the effects of disease on the settlers and the locals, and lists some of the perceived advantages of colonisation, such as the banishment of famine and expansion of the French empire. At the end of the letter, he writes in addition to his own name a list of Jesuits who have been living with him in Quebec.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..In the following two letters,  Jean de Brebeuf (1593-1649) details his experiences with the Huron tribe in the Northeastern Woodlands of North America and Julien Perrault (1602-1647) discusses the Mi kmaq culture in Nova Scotia. All three authors describe the situation, climate, resources and local people, their reports highly anticipated in the French homeland. The tumultuous relationship with the locals is highlighted in the capture and murder of Brebeuf by the Haudenosanee in 1649. Appended is a short reflection of the Jesuits in New France, which contains a number of more general remarks as to the Jesuits  experiences with the climate, the locals and their relationship with God.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..A remarkable insight into early first-hand impressions of the northern parts of the American continent and 17.th. C travel to America..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LE JEUNE, Paul; BREBEUF, Jean de; PERRAULT, Julien.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868700320079,"sku":"L4451a","price":25000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_3770-copy.jpg?v=1781793446"},{"product_id":"ribadeneira-pietro","title":"RIBADENEIRA, Pietro.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of the first Italian edition of the life of St Francisco de Borja (1510-72), an Americanum, with mentions of Florida, Brazil, Peru, and New Spain. Born and raised in Toledo, Pedro de Ribadeneyra (1527-1611) joined the Jesuit order in 1540 under Ignatius of Loyola, of whom he would later write the first biography. After studying theology and rhetoric at Leuven, Paris and Padua, he taught at Italian and German Jesuit colleges, was sent on missions to Belgium and England by Ignatius himself and held important posts in Italy. His  Vita  was first published in Spanish in 1592, and translated into Italian by Giulio Zanchini. Borja was Duke of Gand‚àö‚â†a and a nephew once removed of Emperor Charles V, in whose court he served as a young man. In 1546, after the death of his wife, he entered the newly-formed Society of Jesus; from 1555, he was Jesuit commissary-general of Spain and the Indies, and then Superior General.  Vita  recounts how, before he took office, no Jesuits had penetrated the West Indies under the Crown of Castile. However, a mission was quickly organised to Florida, and another in 1568, after the first had ended tragically. A most interesting description of their travel through the unknown wilderness is provided, as they carried all the ritual objects and books for the mass; again, they were all killed by the native inhabitants who, shortly after, fell to the ground, dead, after looking at the devotional books left behind by the Jesuits. Another section discusses New Spain, mentioning the travel of the first Jesuits who entered Peru, as well as the death of over 40 Jesuits on their way to Brazil, by the hands of Protestant crews with whom they crossed paths at sea. Many of the narratives include miracles enacted by sacred images and scenes of martyrdom.  \u003cbr\u003e\n Marchese Alessandro Valori was a Florentine aristocrat in the second half of the C17. His circle of intellectual friends met regularly at his Villa d Empoli. Corso de  Ricci was a C18  canonicus  in Florence, an ardent anti-Jesuit and brother of the Jesuit General.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RIBADENEIRA, Pietro.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868712870223,"sku":"L4448","price":2450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/ribadaneira-L4448-1.png?v=1781793392"},{"product_id":"loyola-ignazio-de","title":"LOYOLA, Ignazio de","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare and attractive edition of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), who founded the Society of Jesus, first published 1548, with the Official Directory to the Spiritual Exercises issued in 1599. This edition was printed by the Roman College, the Jesuit seminary in Rome founded by Loyola in 1551. \u003cbr\u003e\n Loyola, a soldier and courtier, wrote the Spiritual Exercises during an intense spiritual awakening: severely wounded at the Siege of Pamplona in 1521, he convalesced at the Benedictine Monastery of Montserrat, where he read Ludolph of Saxony s Vita Christi, and at Manresa, where he undertook penitence in a cave and read Thomas Kempis s Imitatio Christi. The result was a model for an active apostolic life as well as one of internal reflection and spirituality, emphasising daily contemplation on the events of Christ s life, self-examination and prayer. \u003cbr\u003e\n   The  Spiritual Exercises  form the most famous modern textbook on ascetic discipline, the nature of sin and Christian perfection by grace   inspired by a remarkable fixity of purpose and designed for a clearly defined and practical end: the moulding of character by the precepts of the gospel. Its asceticism is not one of resignation and withdrawal, but full of a positive recognition of active life. It is this characteristic in particular which made the book such a powerful influence when it became   the handbook of the Society of Jesus, which is devoted to educational, missionary and other active works   As a work of religious inspiration the impact of the  Exercises  has been almost as great outside the Society of Jesus as within  (PMM, pp. 44-45).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LOYOLA, Ignazio de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868720636239,"sku":"L4461","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/frontpageLoyola.png?v=1781793358"},{"product_id":"bocanegra-juan-perez","title":"BOCANEGRA, Juan P érez.","description":".Rare first edition of this guide to the ritual of the Catholic church in Lima in Spanish and Quechua, the Indigenous Peruvian language, with  the first piece of vocal, polyphony printed in any New World book,  the Quechua hymn to the Virgin Mary, Hanaq pachap kusikuynin, in four voice parts, composed sometime before 1622 (Robert Stevenson, Music in in Aztec \u0026amp; Inca Territory (Berkeley: 1968), p. 280). Plainchant notation had been printed in Mexico as early as 1556, anticipating by 142 years the publication of the 1698 edition of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book published in North America to contain printed music, but only monophonic bass parts. The first Quechua texts were printed around 1584-85, by the first printing press in Lima by the Jesuits in 1581. .\n.\n..Juan P érez Bocanegra (d. 1645) was a Spanish Franciscan who became expert in the Indigenous languages and culture of Peru. He taught Latin in Lima before moving to Cusco, where he served as cantor at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, before becoming a parish priest in Andahuaylillas, where he commissioned extravagant baroque decorations for the church. When this manual was published, the Jesuits controlled his parish, and he crucially disagreed with them over doctrinal questions such as whether entire Indigenous communities should be confessed, as well as over translation into Quechua. The Jesuits preferred Spanish loan words that would avoid doctrinal confusion, while Bocanegra was sensitive to the Andean context, for example choosing to translate Dios into the name of the sacred mountain Huanacari. He possibly sought to avoid detection by preventing his Quechua and Spanish translations from aligning perfectly, providing simple Spanish paraphrases, or no Spanish translation at all (see Bruce Mannheim,  A Nation Surrounded  in Native Traditions in the Postconquest World (Dumbarton Oaks: 1998), p. 392). .. .\n.\n..The manual includes prefatory Latin poetry and a sonnet in Quechua, the Nicaean creed in Quechua, and the forms for the sacraments in parallel Quechua and Spanish: baptism; confirmation; penitence, with forms of confession for different sins including luxury, envy, etc., and against those who do not pay debts, commit incest, etc.; the Eucharist, including masses for Easter and the dead; extreme unction; and marriage. There follow forms for writing parish records, a brief catechism of Catholic doctrine in Quechua, prayers and hymns in Quechua, with the printed music, and a calendar of festival days.  .\nThis rare volume   is not noticed by Brunet, Ternaux, or Ludwig  (Sabin).","brand":"BOCANEGRA, Juan Pérez.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868722602319,"sku":"L4503","price":17500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage-2.png?v=1781793339"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-18_at_5.04.47_PM.png?v=1781798783","url":"https:\/\/sokol-books-ltd.myshopify.com\/collections\/jesuitica.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}