Acta consistorii publice exhibiti a S.D.N. Gregorio Papa XIII. regum Iaponiorum legatis Romae, die XXIII. Martii, M.D. LXXXV

Dillingen: Johannes Mayer, 1585. FIRST GERMAN EDITION, PRINTED IN THE YEAR OF THE FIRST. Hardcover. Fine. Bound in levant morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, ruled in gold, spine with raised bands decorated and lettered in gold; gilt dentelles, joints starting. A fine copy. Title with woodcut device, woodcut decorated initials, head- and tailpieces; occasional, very light spotting. The official account of Pope Gregory XIII's reception of the first Japanese embassy to Europe, the so-called Tenshō Embassy. A number of editions were published in 1585; the first was printed in Rome by Francesco Zannetti; three German-language editions were also printed. (truncated) The present example, printed in Dillingen by Johannes Mayer, has the same text as the first Rome edition.

The book includes copies of three letters, dated January 1582, addressed to the Pope from the converted rulers Ōtomo Sōrin (1530-1587), Ōmura Sumitada (1533-1587), and Arima Harunobu (1567-1612), which were presented by the Japanese envoys at the public audience; in the preface we are told that the letters were translated from Japanese into Italian and then, for the official ceremony, into Latin. The letters are followed by the "Oratio" delivered by the Jesuit Gaspar Gonçalves on behalf of the ambassadors. In the oration, Gonsalves recounts the embassy’s journey from Japan to Europe. Next comes Antonio Boccapaduli's response to the ambassadors, delivered in the name of the Pope. The book concludes with a note explaining that, after the official ceremony, the ambassadors were brought to the papal palace where they were treated to a feast, after which, they spoke with the pope in private, discussing -through interpreters- their journey and their religion. They were then taken to Saint Peter’s Basilica before returning to their accommodations.

The embassy was the initiative of Alessandro Valignano, Jesuit Visitor of Japan, and according to Boxer “fulfilled his double intention of attracting the attention of Christendom to the splendid progress the Jesuits were making in Japan, and of impressing the Japanese with the power and civilization of Catholic Europe.”

The Tenshō Embassy departed from Nagasaki in February 1582 and arrived in Lisbon, by way of Goa, in August 1584. It comprised four young envoys: Mansho Ito (c.1569-1612) and Miguel Chijiwa (1569-1632) were the ambassadors representing three warlords, or daimyō (Ōtomo Sōrin, Ōmura Sumitada, and Arima Harunobu); these young men were accompanied by Julian Nakaura (ca. 1568-1633) and Martino Hara (ca. 1569–-1629), nobles from the cities of Nakaura and Hizen. The legation also included two Japanese Jesuit brothers, Costantino Dourado (1567?-1620) and Jorge de Loyola (1562-1589), who had studied printing in Goa and who were to acquire further proficiency in printing techniques during their European sojourn, enabling them to print books in the Japanese language, in kana script, after their return to Japan.

In Madrid the embassy was received by Philip II. It also travelled throughout Italy for almost a year, receiving an audience in Florence with Grand Duke Francis I de’ Medici and in Rome with Pope Gregory XIII. A short time after the reception in Rome the pope died, and the envoys were fortunate enough to be able to attend the coronation of the new pope, Sixtus V. The return trip to Japan, by way of Barcelona and Lisbon, took four years, the embassy arriving back in Nagasaki in July 1590. The journals that the ambassadors kept during their 8-year mission formed the basis of a book printed at Macao in 1590. The four were ordained as the first Japanese Jesuit fathers by Valignano.

All editions are rare. In North America, I have traced copies of the various editions at the following institutions: NYPL, Minnesota, Harvard, Princeton Theological, Folger, Texas Tech, Wisconsin, and Huntington. (Inventory #: 5116)