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Three volumes. Titlepages printed in red and black. Engraved titlepage in second volume. [12],699,[17]; [8],699,[41]; [12],1067,[35]pp. Small quarto. Contemporary vellum, leather ties. Bookplate on front pastedowns. Some light soiling to second volume. Minor scattered foxing. Very good. First edition of one of the major early histories of western endeavor in the Orient and Brazil, and rare, the third volume more so than the first two. Pierre de Jarric (1566-1617) was a Jesuit writer and professor in Bordeaux. Being unable to join the missionary efforts of the Jesuits in the field, he elected instead to put his pen to good use on their behalf. The result was the present work, which records the order's efforts in Brazil and the East Indies. Jarric had at first simply intended to translate Luis de Guzman's HISTORIA DE LAS MISSIONES. (Alcala de Henares, 1601), but instead decided to expand upon that work. His labor took many years, and in order to keep his material up to date he entered into correspondence with, among others, Father Fernao Guerreiro, who was producing a famous series of annual reports on Jesuit business in the East, and who published a summary of those accounts in Lisbon in 1605. This led Jarric to conceive instead a broader-based history, but from a more secular point of view than either Guzman or Guerreiro. Because of his diligence, the work contains much useful information on the colonial and missionary activities of Europe, particularly the Portuguese. The second volume contains important American references on pages 248- 359, consisting of a substantial account of the Jesuits in Brazil. This important work was widely circulated and later translated into Latin. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 610/36. BORBA DE MORAES, pp.358, 425-26. DeBACKER-SOMMERVOGEL IV:750. CORDIER, JAPAN 260/1. CORDIER, SINICA 771. BRUNET II:872. CIORANESCU XVII:27019. GRAESSE II, p.444. LUST 807. STREIT V:96. SABIN 35790. Seller Inventory # WRCAM51650
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