Lettera Annua Del Giappone Dell' Anno MDXCVI. Scritta dal P. Luigi Frois, al R.P. Claudio Acquiaiva Generale della Compagnia di Giesu. Tradotta in Italiano dal P. Francesco Mercati Romano della stesa Compagnia. Rome: Luigi Zannetti, 1599, 8vo.
The Annual Letter from Japan for the Year 1596. Written by Father Luís Fróis to the Reverend Father Claudio Acquaviva, General of the Society of Jesus. Translated into Italian by Father Francesco Mercati, a Roman of the same Society. Rome: Luigi Zannetti, 1599, 8vo.
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FIRST EDITION of this extremely rare and important Jesuit annual letter from Japan, with a first hand account of the events leading up to the martyrdom of twenty six Christians in Nagasaki, one of the most significant events in the history of Christianity in East Asia.
Printed just two years after the execution of the Twenty Six Martyrs and in the year of the author’s death, this is Luís Fróis’ final annual letter and one of the earliest printed reports of the San Felipe incident and its disastrous consequences for Christianity in Japan.
Luis Fróis (1532-1597), was a Portuguese Jesuit and one of the earliest and most important European chroniclers of Japanese culture. He arrived in Japan in 1563 and spent over three decades in the country. His reports, circulated in the form of Lettere Annue, are some of the most significant primary sources on Japan during the Sengoku and Azuchi–Momoyama periods. The 1596 letter details a severe downturn in the fortunes of the Jesuit mission following the grounding of the Spanish ship San Felipe on Shikoku in October 1596. Statements made by the ship’s pilot suggesting missionary activity as a prelude to Spanish colonisation fuelled suspicions of European intentions, leading Toyotomi Hideyoshi to crack down on Christians and to order the crucifixion of twenty six believers in Nagasaki in February 1597.
Three editions of this letter appeared in 1599, printed in Padua, Milan, and Rome, with the Padua edition being the most frequently encountered, though all of these editions are very rare indeed. The Rome edition is exceedingly rare on the market, even more so than the Padua and Milan imprints. We can trace 15 copies held institutionally (via USTC & EDIT16), all of which are held in Italy.
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Size: 104 x 158 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(1), A-R8]
Early full limp vellum binding with title in MS to spine. Binding secure, joints and hinges also secure. Slight shelf lean as typical for limp vellum bindings, but stands on the shelf without support. Collates as complete including blanks. No attached bookplates or ownership inscriptions, but with some light pencil inscriptions to front free endpaper verso from a previous European bookseller where this copy was sold for 7,500 EUR. Text free from marginalia. The full text is legible without loss of sense. Text block toned with scattered foxing throughout, but is in general a very good copy indeed.
[USTC 831063; EDIT16 CNCE 19927]
Cordier, Henri. Bibliotheca Japonica. Paris: E. Leroux, 1912, no. 198
