Author: [RUTILIUS SOMBERGIUS, Joannes (editor and translator)].
Title: Epistolae Indicae, de stupendis et praeclaris rebus, quas divina bonitas in India & variis insulis, per societatem nominis Jesu, operari dignata est, in tam copiosa gentium ad fidem conversione.Leuven, Rutger Velpius, 1566. With:(2) PAYVA de ANDRADE, Diogo de. De societatis Jesu orgine libellus. ... contra Kemnicii cuiusdam petulante[m] audacia[m].Including: Societatis Jesu defensio adversus obtrectatores, ex testimonio, & literis Pii Quarti Pontificis Maximi.Leuven, Rutger Velpius, 1566.2 works in 1 volume, the second in 2 parts. Small 8vo (ca. 15 x 9.5 cm). Ad 1: with a woodcut head-piece with the title set in its banner and Velpius' woodcut device on the title-page, woodcut decorated initials throughout, and some woodcut tailpieces. Ad 2: With Velpius' woodcut device on the title-page, the last page of part 1, and the last page of part 2. The divisional title-page for part 2 contains the woodcut coat-of-arms of Pope Pius IV, with several woodcut decorated initials in both parts. Late 19th-century half brown cloth and marbled paper over boards, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold on the spine, boards covered with marbled paper.
Description: [24], 496; [80]; [32] pp.Very rare first issue of the first edition of this important collection of letters by Jesuit missionaries in the Far East, who were mainly located in Goa, India. These letters are dated from 1544 to 1560 and written by Francis Xavier (1506-1552), Gaspar Berse (1515-1597), Enrique Henriques (1536-1608), Melchior Nunez Barreto (ca. 1520-1571), and others. The letters were sent from Persia, India, China, and Japan, and primarily concern the Jesuit missions including valuable eyewitness accounts.The work is dedicated to the German cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburg (1514-1573) and includes a preface written by the German scholar Joannes Rutilius Sombergius (d. 1587) who was a professor at the University of Dillingen and translated most letters in the present collection into Latin. According to the Bibliotheca Belgica our copy is the first issue of 2, here with the printed dedication dated 4 July 1565; the printed dedication of the second issue is dated 17 August 1565. Ad 2: First and only edition of a defence of the Jesuit Order written by the celebrated Portuguese theologian Diogo de Payva de Andrade (1528-1575). Included in this second work, with its own divisional title-page, is the text titled Societatis Jesu defensio adversus obtrectatores ... This is a collection of four letters in Latin addressed to Pope Pius IV (1499-1565), including 3 written by the Italian bishop Antonius Florebellus Lavellinus (Antonio Fiordibello, 1510-1574).With a manuscript owner's inscription on the title-page of ad 1. The binding shows slight signs of wear, with a small scratch on the front board. The title-page of ad 1 is slightly soiled, a small hole in leaves V2 and V7 with loss of a few letters, with some light water staining in the head margin throughout. Otherwise in good condition.l Ad 1: Alt-Japan-Katalog 466; Belg. Typ. 1017, 8249; Bibl. Belg. II, p. 266 (E 12); Cordier, Japonica, cols. 49-50; Machiels J 58; Sabin 22704; USTC 409683 (27 copies; collation of our issue, but different digital copy) or 409684 (2 copies; other coll. but with digital copy identical to ours); cf. not in STCV; Ad 2: Belg. Typ. 3950; Cordier, Japonica, col. 50-51; Machiels A 350 (under Andrade); USTC 409707 (25 copies); cf. not in STCV.

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