Paris, Sébastien et Gabriel Cramoisy, 1653.
12mo [154 x 99 mm] of (1) l. of title, (5) ll. for the epistle and the table, 139 pp., (1) p. Bound in full contemporary granite-like calf, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurons, red edges. Contemporary binding.
First and only edition, of the utmost rarity, of this important relation by the Jesuit Metelle Saccano. Sommervogel, VII, 360; Cordier, Indosinica, 1922.
The relation of the Italian Jesuit missionary Metelle Saccano (Messina, 1612 – Japan, 1662) concerns the troubled period that followed the expulsion of the father Alexandre de Rhodes, in 1645, first evangelist and emblematic figure of the Christian mission in Cochinchina and in Tonkin (current Vietnam). Saccano succeeds before going to Japan.
The account of father Saccano reveals the difficulties found by the Jesuits in their struggle to evangelize the populations of Cochinchina in the middle of the 17th century, and the persecutions they suffered : “While we were shaving, and we were whipping the four ones who haven’t been sentenced to death, Augustine with burning words, was urging Christians he was letting alive, to the faithful and constant observance of the Law of God, and then turning towards Alexis who had to be executed with him: ‘Let’s redouble our courage, he says, my dear brother…’ Their heads were placed on high piles according to the deliberate order of the King, as the tradition is for criminals. Images and books of devotion were then burnt…”
The work counts a dedicatory epistle signed by Jacques de Machault and directed to the abbé de Sainte Croix, Bishop of Bayeux.
A fine copy of this rare travel relation to Cochinchina preserved in its contemporary binding.
Copies recorded among public French Institutions: Toulouse, Reims, Troyes and B.n.F.
Provenance: library label on the foot of the spine, engraved ex libris J.A. Dezauche on the paste-down.
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