Lyon, Jean Pillehotte, 1604.
In-8 de (2) ff., 953 pages, (47) pp. de table. Qq. rousseurs, petite galerie de vers à partir de la p. 915.
Plein maroquin rouge, filets dorés encadrant les plats, dos à nerfs orné. Elégante reliure du XVIIe siècle.
171 x 116 mm.
Edition originale de la traduction française du plus célèbre ouvrage du jésuite Jean-Pierre Maffei (1535-1603) « Historiarum Indicarum ».
De Backer & Sommervogel, V, col. 299 ; Sabin 43782.
Il s’agit de l’une des premières missions de jésuites en extrême orient, incluant les lettres et la vie d’Ignace de Loyola.
Le grand ouvrage du jésuite italien Giovanni Pietro Maffei (1538-1603) sur l’Histoire générale des Indes retrace l’histoire des missions jésuites portugaises au Brésil, aux Indes, au Japon et en Chine. Il s’agit de la première traduction française de l’ouvrage, donnée par le chanoine périgourdin François Arnault de la Borie.
« Based on primary materials and written in elegant Latin, Maffei’s Historiarum Indicarum received an enthusiastic reception all over Europe. The way had been prepared for its appearance by the enthusiasm aroused by the Japanese embassy. Like Mendoza’s book on China, it hit the market when curiosity about the Far East was at its height…..Unlike many of the letters from the East, Maffei’s work is couched in careful language and rhetorical flourishes that are notably few. Even Valignano, who had warned that Maffei’s work should not be published until it had been seen in the East, appeared to be happy with his discussion of Japan. In 1603, the Jesuit Visitor [i.e. Va1ignano] wrote from Macao: “Of all those who have so far written about Japan, none has done it with greater precision or in better order than Father G. P. Maffei.”
« Most of Maffei’s work is concerned with the Portuguese conquests and the Jesuit stations in India, the East Indies, and the region of the Arabian Sea to about 1557. The first five books appear to follow rather closely the model of Barros. Book VI, dealing with China, like book XII, which is mainly concerned with Japan, is heavily indebted to Valignano’s account of those countries. The appendixes of letters … were almost all written either about or from Japan in the years between 1549 and 1574. While reproducing here many of the same letters which he had earlier appended to his translation of Da Costa’s book [i.e. Acosta’s Rerum a Societate Jesu in Oriente gestarum], Maffei appears to have exercised greater care in the selections which he made for this second compendium. Furthermore, this second effort did not suffer from the excisions and revision of the Roman censors. In fact, it is worth observing that it originally appeared in Florence, and that none of the subsequent editions was produced in Rome” (Latch I pp. 325-6) » (Bemard Quaritch Ltd., catalogue 1226: « The Society of Jesus, 1548-1773, » 134, re. Cologne, 1593 ed.).
En 1570, Maffei publia la traduction latine de l’Histoire des Indes orientales, par le P. Acosta ; et le cardinal Henri de Portugal, charmé de la beauté de son style l’appela à Lisbonne pour y travailler à l’Histoire générale des Indes, sur les documents conservés dans les archives publiques.
Le jésuite se rendit à l’invitation du prince, qui l’accueillit avec distinction et lui fournit tous les secours nécessaires pour ce travail. Après la mort de Henri, en 1581, Maffei revint en Italie, et habita, à diverses reprises, Rome et Sienne, toujours occupé de revoir et de polir ses ouvrages. Le pape Clément VIII lui accorda un logement au Vatican, et l’invita de continuer en latin les Annales de Grégoire XIII qu’il avait composées en italien. Tous les ouvrages de Maffei sont écrits avec une simplicité et un naturel très remarquables.
Fort bel exemplaire à grandes marges en élégante reliure en maroquin orné du XVIIe siècle.
