COUPLET Philippus S.J. - [ ] Candid HIU - granddaughter of colao HSÜ-KUANG-CH'I : - Historie van eene groote Christene mevrouwe van China met naeme mevrouw Candida Hiu. In dewelcke (...) de gewoonte van dat volck , het vaststellen der religie, de maniere van handelen der Verkondighers des Gheloofs (...) uytgeleydt worden....

Antwerpen, In de Druckerye van Knobbaert by Franciscus Muller, 1694, in-8°, 14 cm, (24) nn pp ( with title, last page is a full page copper engraved portrait ) + 213 pp + (11) nn pp ( index, last page blank). ( complete). Bound in contemporary vellum. Vellum dustsoiled, title page and some of the first pages a bit dustsoiled and/or thumbed. Still a fine complete copy. With as only provenance indication a handwritten ex-libris on the first paste down '' desen boek behoord toe aen catharina angelaet anno 1787 tot ( word deleted)------- tot Gendt'' (Translation: this book belongs to Catharina Angelaet, anno 1787, from ...Ghendt). Philippus Couplet ( Chinese name Pe In Li Sin Mo ) born in the Southern Netherlands ( Mechelen 1622) died at sea near Goa ( India ) on the 16th May 1693 . He entered the Jesuit order in 1640. In 1656 he went to China together with e.g. Ferdinand Verbiest . He went to Rome (Pope Alexander VII) , Paris ( Louis XIV at Versailles ) and Oxford to promote the understanding of Chinese culture and language. Pp 104-106 contain the Dutch translation of a letter from Pope Innocentius XI to Ferdinand Verbiest, dated Rome, 3rd December 1681 in which the pope e.g. thanks Verbiest for the gift of a copy of the Roman Catholic Missal in Chinese and also some astronomical texts. This edition in Couplet's mother tongue - Dutch - is very rare. There are no copies known in public libraries outside the Netherlands. It is a translation of the first edition which was published in French, in Paris 1688, in a translation from Latin by P. d'Orléans. (See Debacker-Sommervogel Vol. II col. 1563 ). This edition not in Lust (he lists the first French edition - item 805 ).. .