1615 RICCI, M. / TRIGAULT, N. - De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu, ex P. Matthaei Ricci.

Very rare first edition of the most influential Western description of China since the 13th-century account by Marco Polo. Printed in Latin with an engraved title page including a map of China.

The earliest authoritative source of information on China available in Europe at that time. At his death Matteo Ricci, the pioneer Jesuit missionary to China, left an unfinished manuscript entitled Della entrata della Compagnia di Giesu at Christianita nella Cina. 

Trigault completed the manuscript, translated it into Latin and published it in 1615 in Augsburg. He added material from other Ricci manuscripts, as well as an account of Ricci's death and funeral. It was quickly reprinted across Europe and translated into numerous European languages.

Gallagher writes: '. 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 of the seventeenth century. It introduced Confucius to Europe and Copernicus and Euclid to China. It opened a new world' (China in the Sixteenth Century: the Journal of Matthew Ricci, 1953).

The Jesuits wanted to understand China to win converts. Accordingly, they adopted Chinese names, dress, language and immersed themselves in the Chinese culture, while introducing the Chinese to western mathematics, science, cartography and astronomy. In 1592 Ricci famously predicted a solar eclipse more accurately than the court astronomers. As a result, Emperor Wan-li invited Ricci to Peking. Ricci arrived in the city in 1601 and resided there until he died in 1610. The title page engraving shows Matteo Ricci and Saint Francis Xavier, along with Ricci's map of China.

Trigault was born at Douai in 1577 and joined the Jesuits when he was 17 or 18. 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, undoubtedly helped by the artefacts he had brought, 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. 

Provenance With ex-libris of Victor Marat d'Avila Perez , who formed one of Portugal's most excellent libraries ever. Victor Marat d'Avila Perez's library was one of the most important ever auctioned in Portugal. A total of 8,962 lots went under the hammer from October 1939 through April 1940 from a six-volume catalogue.

Reference: De Backer-Sommervogel VIII, 239, 6; Streit V, 2094; Cordier, Sinica 809; Löwendahl, Sino-Western Relations, Vol. I, p. 29 ff. No. 54; J. Gernet, China and the Christian Impact (1985) p. 7; Mungello, Curious Land: Jesuit accommodation and the origins of Sinology, Ch. 2; ON the provenance stamp, see Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d’Estampes, 3285.