Rome: Luigi Zannetti, 1592.

Price: $12,500.00

Octavo: 14.6 x 9.8 cm. 64 p. Collation: A-B8, χ1, C-D8. This is the variant with lvs. A5-8 and χ1 are positioned after gathering B, as intended, with resulting pagination: 1-8, 17-32, 9-18, 33-64. Pages 32 and 64 are blank. In this variant, χ1 has a type ornament at the head and a decorative initial.

FIRST EDITION.

Bound in modern speckled boards. A clean, tidy copy. Jesuit emblem on title page.

A very rare and highly significant Jesuit relation with reports from Peru (p. 27-41, which includes an account of religious rites), Mexico (p. 42-52, the first mission report from Sinaloa), India (p. 1-10, including a letter from the Mughal Emperor Jalāl-ud-Dīn Muhammad Akbar “The Great”, and a note that fifty-thousand elephants are deployed for military use throughout India), and letters from Japan (including two by powerful Japanese daimyō and the Japanese ambassador to Europe.)

This Italian-language version was reprinted at Turin and Bologna in 1593. A Latin ed. appeared in 1593; there were two French versions in 1593 and 1594. All editions are rare.

The Japanese Letters:

A letter from Miguel Chijiwa (?1569-1633), ambassador who represented the Japanese daimyō Arima Harunobu (1567-1612) and Ōmura Sumitada (1533-1587) during the first Japanese embassy to Europe. The ambassador had left for Europe in February 1582 and had returned home to Japan in July 1590. He opens his letter with a report of his arrival in Nagasaki with the other ambassadors, where they were met by their joyous relatives and friends, and welcomed by the people of Nagasaki with wonderment and applause. This is followed by a letter from Arima Harunobu himself to Pope Sixtus V. The third letter is by Ōmura Yoshiaki (1568-1615), Ōmura Sumitada’s adopted son and heir, who thanks Pope Sixtus for sending gold to subsidize the Christian church in Japan and for the gift of a sword and a piece of the true Cross, which the pope has sent as a gift for Yoshiaki’s deceased father.

Letter from Akbar the Great:

A remarkable letter, written at Lahore in 1590–1591, from Akbar the Great to the Jesuits at Goa, inviting them to his court. In the letter, Akbar explicitly requested that Jesuit fathers come to engage in theological disputation with his Indian religious scholars, stating that through their holy doctrine he hoped to be restored from death to life. He promised them safe passage, tax exemptions along the entire route from Cambay to Lahore, and a residence of suitable dignity upon arrival, as well as freedom to depart whenever they wished. This letter marked the formal beginning of the Second Jesuit Mission to Akbar’s court at Fatehpur Sikri (later Lahore), reflecting both Akbar’s intense interest in comparative religion and his policy of religious toleration (sulh-i kul). It also demonstrates how Jesuit diplomacy and Mughal curiosity intersected, setting the stage for one of the most famous interreligious dialogues of the early modern world.

The Peru Relation:

A letter written by Juan de Atienza (d. 1595), who arrived in Peru in 1581, served as rector of the College of San Pablo in Lima, and was promoted to Provincial in 1586, in which capacity he oversaw the missions in Ecuador, Gran Chaco, Tucuman and Paraguay.

Atienza’s letter contains detailed descriptions of Indigenous religious and other cultural practices, including a rain ritual in which youths ascend a mountain and imbibe a possibly hallucinogenic beverage: “holding a certain potion in their hands, which is handed to them by some noble girl, they drink it and are so taken away from their senses, and become so weak that they seem dead, but when they return to themselves, they mix honey, water, and corn; which, having mixed, they sprinkle it into the clouds below.”

In another ritual, a young boy, chosen for his beauty, is enclosed in a chamber, where he fasts until his hair grows out. When he is released, he is crowned, given a weapon to hold in one hand and a live viper -which is allowed to bite him- to hold in the other. A ritual for the dead is also described.

Azienda also reports that during a severe famine, the Jesuits visited the prisons giving both spiritual nourishment and food to the prisoners. The Jesuits are in the habit of attending Amerindian celebrations (dances, festivals, and feasts) where they preach the Gospel to receptive audiences. A plague struck and the Peruvians were influenced by their “magi” to offer sacrifices to their own gods, rather than to seek forgiveness from the Christian God.

The Mexican Mission:

A letter written by Martin Pérez. Born in Mexico in 1550, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1577, and became the first Jesuit to work in Sinaloa, founding the first mission there, in Culiacán in 1591. He died on April 25, 1626.

Pérez describes his arrival in Sinaloa after crossing the rugged mountains of the Tepahuán. Along the way he and his fellow Jesuits encountered Indigenous groups, including the Xixime, who received them peacefully, and Spanish settlers who begged for priests after years without the sacraments. Pérez gives a detailed picture of the province’s geography: it lies more than three hundred leagues north of Mexico City, bordered by the mountains to the east and the Gulf of California to the west, stretching northwest toward the borderlands of present-day New Mexico/Arizona. The land is divided by eight great rivers that provide fish and support thriving villages along their banks. He highlights the region’s fertility, its double harvests of maize and beans, and its abundance of cotton for clothing.

Much of the letter offers a careful description of the Indigenous people and their culture. Pérez notes their tall stature, strength, and courage in battle, as well as their general peaceable nature (once hostilities with the Spaniards had ceased.) Their clothing is often minimal, with ornamented belts, ear adornments, and elaborate hairstyles decorated with feathers and shells. They live in closely built clay-and-timber houses and follow distinctive social customs, including polygamy and marriage within the family group), various initiation rites, adoption rituals, funeral rites (involving cremation and post-funeral feasting), and their leisure activities.

The final part of the letter focuses on the mission’s progress. Pérez reports the baptism of hundreds of children and adults, the regularization of marriages, and the construction of thirteen churches along the main rivers, with more planned. He laments that two missionaries cannot keep up with the demand for instruction, especially since some families hide their children due to fear. Still, he is encouraged by the willingness of the people to learn prayers in their own language and participate in Christian celebrations such as the feast of the Immaculate Conception. He ends on a hopeful note, sharing the vicar of Culiacán’s praise for the mission’s rapid success and calling the work a sign of divine favor.

Cordier, Japonica, 123; JCB, Bibliotheca Americana I, p. 331-332; Alden-Landis, European Americana, I, 592/25; Sommervogel Vol. 7, 1454