De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu - photo 1

De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu

Lot 180
02.02.2024 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 100
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
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Archive
ID 1129800
Lot 180 | De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu
Estimate value
$ 8 000 – 12 000
RICCI, Matteo (1552-1610) – Nicolas TRIGAULT (1577-1628), editor. De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu. Ex P. Matthaei Ricii eiusdem societatis comentariis libri V ad S.D.N. Paulum V. In quibus Sinensis Regni mores leges atq. instituta & noua[e] illius ecclesiae difficillima primordia accurate & summa fide describuntur. Auctore P. Nicolao Trigautio. Augsburg: Christoph Mang, 1615.

Very rare first edition of the most influential Western description of China since the 13th-century account by Marco Polo.

“The appearance of Trigault's book in 1615 took Europe by surprise. It reopened the door to China, which was first opened by Marco Polo, three centuries before, and then closed behind him by an incredulous public, who received the greater part of his fabulous narrative as the beguiling tales of a capricious traveler. [It] probably had more effect on the literary and scientific, the philosophical and the religious phases of life in Europe than any other historical volume on the 17th century ... It opened a new world” (Gallagher, China in the sixteenth century; the journals of Matteo Ricci, pp. xvii-ix).

Trigault was born at Douai in 1577 and joined the Jesuits when he was 17 or 18 years old. After spending a decade teaching in the Society's colleges, he petitioned to be sent as a missionary to the 'Indies', finally securing passage in 1607. He seems to have arrived in China in about 1610, and was in charge of the mission in three provinces. At this time, the Japan mission, founded by Francis Xavier (1506-1552), overshadowed that of their brethren in China; but Trigault was part of a band of missionaries that, through Matteo Ricci's (1552-1610) influence and diplomacy, had managed to obtain prestige in the Ming empire by becoming the first westerners to learn Mandarin and offer new forms of knowledge to the Chinese elite. Seeing the need to promote their cause and secure better patronage in the Society's hierarchy, the China Jesuits decided to send Trigault back home and entrust him with the sensitive task of bringing attention to their successes in China.

Back in Rome, Trigault was fêted as a celebrity, no doubt helped by the artefacts he had brought with him, and undertook a lengthy continental promotion tour lasting some four years. Part of Trigault's approach was to publish the manuscript memoirs of Ricci from Italian into Latin. By 1614 he had completed this task, amending the contents to include an account of the latter's death and funeral, and published it in 1615 while travelling through Augsburg. The folding plate illustrates Ricci's tomb in Beijing – an exceptional burial for a westerner granted by the Ming emperor Wanli (1563-1620). Cordier Sinica I, 809; De Backer & Sommervogel VIII, 239; Lust 836; Morrison II, 466; Streit V:2094.

Quarto (190 x 147mm). With final blank leaf. Engraved title-page by Wolfgang Kilian (1581-1662) illustrating the Jesuit missionaries Francis Xavier and Matteo Ricci flanking a map of China, folding engraved plate with diagram of Ricci's tomb in China (short closed tears into text in a3-4 and 3T1, small marginal wormholes throughout affecting some shoulder notes, minor marginal dampstaining). Early vellum over stiff boards (rebacked preserving most of spine, lightly marked, lacking ties, two tiny wormholes). Provenance: Benedictine Monastery of Weingarten (inscription on title dated 1616) – faint early inscription on endpaper – traces of removed bookplate on front pastedown.
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