First edition, one of the most important works on Japanese–Western affairs in the early 17th century; it stands as an early source book on the history of Japan as recorded by Europeans at a point of heavy cultural interchange. It is fundamental as it records the edit expelling Jesuit Missionaries from the Island, and the subjacent turmoil and troubles of the Jesuits active in Japan. The work includes as is expected the lives and deeds of the Jesuit missionaries and their hardships after the edict.
The history spans mostly through the years 1612–1615, comprising a detailed and lengthy account of the progress of the Catholic Faith, the Japanese interactions, the causes of the persecution of Christians & converts, and the expulsion of the missionaries –with its effects- following the Tokugawa Ieyasu edict of 1614, which ordered the expulsion of the missionaries and marked the beginning of the end of the Christian Church in Japan. The work contains a list of the Christian martyrs from 1574 – 1615 and the location of the Jesuit missions in Japan. For Japanese history, this is also a most relevant work, as it is written during the years of the beginning of the Shogunate that would control the country for two centuries, ending a period of unrest and civil war by the different Daimyos. “Muy raro” (Palau).
Piñeyro (1560 – 1620) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary; he is believed to have been in Japan during the years of gradually worsening relationships between the Shogunate and the Christian Church.
Provenance: the cypher on spine “P A” is the same as the one found in the Coleccion de Ordenanzas del Consejo de Indias in the collection of Gaspar Elordi Albizu (1804 -1852), which is attributed to a ´Pedro Aparicio´, however we have been unable to substanciate this claim.
Cordier Japonica, 290; Palau 226932; Streit V, 1163; De Backer-Sommervogel, VI, 817.
