signed first edition Hardcover
1614 · Madrid
by AFRICA. ASIA. JESUITS. Guerreiro, Fernão, S.J. (1567-1617); Figueroa, Cristóbal Suárez de (1571-1644)
Madrid: en la Imprenta Real, vendese en casa de Juan Hasrey, 1614. SPANISH FIRST EDITION, EXPANDED and TRANSLATED FROM THE PORTUGUESE FIRST EDITION (Lisbon, 1611). Hardcover. Fine. An excellent copy of this rare book, bound in original limp Spanish vellum with the two braided closing straps (the bead catches lost), with the title inscribed on the spine. A bright, crisp copy with a small (2 cm.) restoration to the bank white margin of page 279-280, a tiny, natural flaw on leaf Y1, and light stains on the t.p. Binding with minor soiling. All edges red. Title page with typographic border and emblem of the Society of Jesus. Woodcut arms of the dedicatee, Gerónimo Corella y Mendoza, Count of Concetayna, Marquis of Almenara, on leaf ¶¶4 verso. First Spanish edition of this account of the Jesuit Missions in India, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and Africa in the years 1607 and 1608. This book is largely a compilation of reports sent to Europe from those missions, with a supplemental history of Ethiopia that discusses the form of Christianity practiced there and the progress of the Jesuit missions in the kingdom. This is the second edition of the book, and the only other 17th c. edition of the complete work published in any language.
The work is divided into five sections, the first four of them containing the reports from: 1. The Jesuit Province of Goa, which includes the missions in Monomotapa (Zimbabwe and Mozambique), Mogor (i.e. the Mughal Court in Lahore and Agra), and Ethiopia. 2. The Province of Cochin, including the missions in Malabar, Pegu (Myanmar), and Maluco (Bukidnon, Philippines). 3. Provinces of Japan and China; 4. Guinea and Sierra Leone. 5. The supplemental history of Ethiopia and the Jesuit mission in Africa.
From his vantage at Lisbon, the author, Fernão Guerreiro, S.J. was perfectly positioned to synthesize the Jesuit annual letters (and other reports from lands under the Portuguese Padroado) that made their way back to Portugal. “As Lisbon was the confluence point of many letters on the activities of the Jesuits overseas, he undertook the work of compiling them and grouping them by place of origin” (Vaz de Carvalho, 2001). Guerreiro’s project was largely an act of compilation, not commentary, making his works a mine of primary source material on the missions.
The book is the fifth in a series of five volumes written by Guerreiro, the first of which was finished in 1603. Printed in three different cities by three different publishers, the five bi-annual reports were never issued as a set. Only portions were reprinted, and those only in translation. All volumes are extremely rare. I have failed to find a North American institution with all five.
The book “begins with a review of the Jesuit establishment at Goa, the nerve center of the Society's enterprise in the East. Most revealing are the efforts made by the Jesuits to convert Emperor Jahangir... In addition to the usual descriptions of conversions and persecutions, the materials on Japan contain details on Mount Fuji, on the journey from Osaka to Nagasaki, and on some smaller places rarely mentioned in earlier writings. In the section on China, reference is made to the fact that three of the four Jesuits in Nanking are devoting themselves to study of the Chinese language.”(Lach) In addition to the annual reports from Africa, there is an important, supplemental work on the history of Ethiopia and the Jesuit mission in Africa.
First published in Portuguese (Lisbon, Craesbeeck, 1611), this Spanish translation is the work of the renowned Golden Age author and translator Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa (Valladolid, 1571 - Naples 1644), whose patron was Juan Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, fifth Marquis of Cañete.
“The ‘Relations’ of Father Ferão Guerreiro constitute a complete history of the missionary undertakings of the Society of Jesus in the East Indies, China, Japan, and Africa, during the first nine years of the seventeenth century. The work was compiled from the annual letters and reports sent to Europe from the various missionary centers. It was published in five parts, or instalments, each covering a period of about two years, as follows: Part I (1600-1601) published at Evora by Manoel de Lyra in 1603; Part II (1602-1603) at Lisbon by Iorge Rodrigues in 1605; Pt. III (1604-1605) at Lisbon by Pedro Crasbeeck in 1607; Pt. IV (1606-1607) by Crasbeeck in 1609; and Pt. V (1607-1608), again by Crasbeeck, in 1611.”(Manoharlal, Jahangir and the Jesuits, Introduction).
Africa: The History and State of the Kingdom of Ethiopia:
“News of the Ethiopian mission appeared in most of Guerreiro’s volumes, namely in those published in 1605, 1607, 1609 and 1611. He collated information on missionary work (its implementation, activities, etc.), but also included news about the political and religious situation in Ethiopia over each two-year period, information on local fauna, flora and hydrography, customs of different communities, descriptions of kingdoms, provinces, regions… His books gave the Ethiopian mission wide visibility in Europe.” (Pennec, An Ethiopian Mille-feuille: Unearthing the history of the Jesuit mission to Ethiopia, p. 85)
Guerreiro’s relation of 1607-1608 is especially important for the long, supplemental fifth book on the history and progress of Christianity in Ethiopia. It describes state of affairs in that kingdom in the early 17th c. and the attempt to establish a second mission at the Ethiopian court, the first mission having largely failed. Guerreiro wrote this section in response to a book on Ethiopia published in 1610 by the Dominican Luis de Urreta, which was full of errors and false assertions. Guerreiro aimed to set the record straight.
“Since the mid-16th century, the Jesuits had been engaged in an attempt to establish missions in this kingdom, whose Christianity differed greatly from that of Rome. The Ethiopian Church’s links to the Orthodox patriarchate of Alexandria and its adherence to monophysite doctrine (a doctrine centered on the divinity of Christ incarnate), were the two main points of divergence that Ignatius of Loyola, the first general of the order, raised in his letter to the Ethiopian sovereign, Claude (Gelawdewos, 1540-1559)…
“The reactivation of the Ethiopian mission in the last decades of the 16th century was decided by Philip II, sovereign of Spain and Portugal. His motives were both diplomatic and religious as he expected to renew the alliance with Christian Ethiopia to fight the Ottomans in the Red Sea. He was also acting in response to the pleas of the Portuguese Catholic community in Ethiopia, who feared being left without ‘spiritual guidance’, as the priests from the 1557 mission were either dead or very old…
“At the beginning of the 17th century, the new group of Jesuit missionaries that had been sent to Ethiopia were far from succeeding in converting the Ethiopian sovereign and his people to the Roman faith.”(Pennec, An Ethiopian Mille-feuille: Unearthing the history of the Jesuit mission to Ethiopia, p. 85)
The other translations:
The Spanish translation of Pt. I by Father Antonio Cola, printed at Valladolid in 1604, and this Spanish translation of Pt. V are the only translations of whole volumes. There were also German translations of the Ethiopian report for 1604-1605 (“Ethiopische Relation oder Bericht…”, 1610), the China report for 1604 (“Historischer Bericht”, 1611), and a partial translation of Pt. V (“Indianische newe Relation…”, 1614). (Inventory #: 5137)
The work is divided into five sections, the first four of them containing the reports from: 1. The Jesuit Province of Goa, which includes the missions in Monomotapa (Zimbabwe and Mozambique), Mogor (i.e. the Mughal Court in Lahore and Agra), and Ethiopia. 2. The Province of Cochin, including the missions in Malabar, Pegu (Myanmar), and Maluco (Bukidnon, Philippines). 3. Provinces of Japan and China; 4. Guinea and Sierra Leone. 5. The supplemental history of Ethiopia and the Jesuit mission in Africa.
From his vantage at Lisbon, the author, Fernão Guerreiro, S.J. was perfectly positioned to synthesize the Jesuit annual letters (and other reports from lands under the Portuguese Padroado) that made their way back to Portugal. “As Lisbon was the confluence point of many letters on the activities of the Jesuits overseas, he undertook the work of compiling them and grouping them by place of origin” (Vaz de Carvalho, 2001). Guerreiro’s project was largely an act of compilation, not commentary, making his works a mine of primary source material on the missions.
The book is the fifth in a series of five volumes written by Guerreiro, the first of which was finished in 1603. Printed in three different cities by three different publishers, the five bi-annual reports were never issued as a set. Only portions were reprinted, and those only in translation. All volumes are extremely rare. I have failed to find a North American institution with all five.
The book “begins with a review of the Jesuit establishment at Goa, the nerve center of the Society's enterprise in the East. Most revealing are the efforts made by the Jesuits to convert Emperor Jahangir... In addition to the usual descriptions of conversions and persecutions, the materials on Japan contain details on Mount Fuji, on the journey from Osaka to Nagasaki, and on some smaller places rarely mentioned in earlier writings. In the section on China, reference is made to the fact that three of the four Jesuits in Nanking are devoting themselves to study of the Chinese language.”(Lach) In addition to the annual reports from Africa, there is an important, supplemental work on the history of Ethiopia and the Jesuit mission in Africa.
First published in Portuguese (Lisbon, Craesbeeck, 1611), this Spanish translation is the work of the renowned Golden Age author and translator Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa (Valladolid, 1571 - Naples 1644), whose patron was Juan Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, fifth Marquis of Cañete.
“The ‘Relations’ of Father Ferão Guerreiro constitute a complete history of the missionary undertakings of the Society of Jesus in the East Indies, China, Japan, and Africa, during the first nine years of the seventeenth century. The work was compiled from the annual letters and reports sent to Europe from the various missionary centers. It was published in five parts, or instalments, each covering a period of about two years, as follows: Part I (1600-1601) published at Evora by Manoel de Lyra in 1603; Part II (1602-1603) at Lisbon by Iorge Rodrigues in 1605; Pt. III (1604-1605) at Lisbon by Pedro Crasbeeck in 1607; Pt. IV (1606-1607) by Crasbeeck in 1609; and Pt. V (1607-1608), again by Crasbeeck, in 1611.”(Manoharlal, Jahangir and the Jesuits, Introduction).
Africa: The History and State of the Kingdom of Ethiopia:
“News of the Ethiopian mission appeared in most of Guerreiro’s volumes, namely in those published in 1605, 1607, 1609 and 1611. He collated information on missionary work (its implementation, activities, etc.), but also included news about the political and religious situation in Ethiopia over each two-year period, information on local fauna, flora and hydrography, customs of different communities, descriptions of kingdoms, provinces, regions… His books gave the Ethiopian mission wide visibility in Europe.” (Pennec, An Ethiopian Mille-feuille: Unearthing the history of the Jesuit mission to Ethiopia, p. 85)
Guerreiro’s relation of 1607-1608 is especially important for the long, supplemental fifth book on the history and progress of Christianity in Ethiopia. It describes state of affairs in that kingdom in the early 17th c. and the attempt to establish a second mission at the Ethiopian court, the first mission having largely failed. Guerreiro wrote this section in response to a book on Ethiopia published in 1610 by the Dominican Luis de Urreta, which was full of errors and false assertions. Guerreiro aimed to set the record straight.
“Since the mid-16th century, the Jesuits had been engaged in an attempt to establish missions in this kingdom, whose Christianity differed greatly from that of Rome. The Ethiopian Church’s links to the Orthodox patriarchate of Alexandria and its adherence to monophysite doctrine (a doctrine centered on the divinity of Christ incarnate), were the two main points of divergence that Ignatius of Loyola, the first general of the order, raised in his letter to the Ethiopian sovereign, Claude (Gelawdewos, 1540-1559)…
“The reactivation of the Ethiopian mission in the last decades of the 16th century was decided by Philip II, sovereign of Spain and Portugal. His motives were both diplomatic and religious as he expected to renew the alliance with Christian Ethiopia to fight the Ottomans in the Red Sea. He was also acting in response to the pleas of the Portuguese Catholic community in Ethiopia, who feared being left without ‘spiritual guidance’, as the priests from the 1557 mission were either dead or very old…
“At the beginning of the 17th century, the new group of Jesuit missionaries that had been sent to Ethiopia were far from succeeding in converting the Ethiopian sovereign and his people to the Roman faith.”(Pennec, An Ethiopian Mille-feuille: Unearthing the history of the Jesuit mission to Ethiopia, p. 85)
The other translations:
The Spanish translation of Pt. I by Father Antonio Cola, printed at Valladolid in 1604, and this Spanish translation of Pt. V are the only translations of whole volumes. There were also German translations of the Ethiopian report for 1604-1605 (“Ethiopische Relation oder Bericht…”, 1610), the China report for 1604 (“Historischer Bericht”, 1611), and a partial translation of Pt. V (“Indianische newe Relation…”, 1614). (Inventory #: 5137)
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