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The Thomas Christians on the Malabar coast

GOVEA (or GOUVEA), Antonio & Aleixo de MENEZES.
Histoire orientale des grans progres de l' Eglise Cathol. Apost. & Rom. en la reduction des anciens Chrestiens, dit de S. Thomas, de plusieurs autres schismatiques & heretiques a l' union de la vraye Eglise. Conversion encor des Mahometains, Mores et payens. Par les bons devoirs du Don Alexis de Meneses, de l' Ordre des Eremites de S. Augustin, Archevesque de Goa, & Primat de tout l' Orient. Composée en langue Portugaise, & puis mise en Espagnol par venerable P.F. Francois Munoz, & tournée en Francois par F. Jean Baptiste de Glen.

With a small vignette on title, some woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials.

With a small vignette on title, some woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials.

With a small vignette on title, some woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials.



Bruxelles, Rutger Velpius, 1609. 8vo. Contemp. brown calf, spine gilt in compartments, title lettered in gold. With a small vignette on title, some woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. (44), 748 pp.

With:
GLEN, Jean Baptise de & Aleixo de MENEZES. La messe des anciens Chrestiens, dicts de S. Thomas, en l' évesché d' Angamal és Indes Orientales: repurgée des erreurs et blasphemes du Nestoriasme. traduite du Syriaqueou Surien en langue Latine. Y premise une Remonstrance Catholique aux peuples du Pays-Bas, des fruits et utilité de la precedente histoire, & de la messe subsequente: par Jean-Baptiste de Glen. Brussels, Rutger Velpius, 1609. (12), 124 pp.

Ad 1: First French edition of António de Govea's account Jornada do Arcebispo de Goa Dom Frey Aleixo de Menezes, first published in Portuguese in Coimbra, 1606, of the Jesuit-Portuguese success in aligning the St. Thomas Christians of Malabar, the South-West coast of India that was the scene of trade struggles in the 16th and early 17th centuries between the Portuguese and their European and Indian rivals, with the Latin Church. The original Portuguese text was translated into French by Jean Baptiste de Glen (1552 - 1613), an Augustinian theologian. There are two issues of this edition with two different imprints: one printed by Jer. Verdussen in Antwerp, and one (as our copy) printed in Brussels. The text was also translated into Spanish by Francois Munoz, but remained in manuscript.
This Christian success is seen as the greatest of those years. It was the archbishop Aleixo de Meneses (1559 -1617) who put pressure on the St. Thomas Christians to acknowledge Papal supremecy. The civil and religious authorities worked closely together in Portuguese India, which is demonstrated by the appointment of Meneses as governor in 1602, which he remained until 1608. In 1603 Meneses started writing his version of this Christian victory, together with Antonio de Govea (ca. 1757 - ca. 1628) a Portuguese vice-provincial and also an Augustinian, then resident in Goa. Govea's text represents the idea that the St. Thomas Christians, after having practised their religion, independently and for from the Roman church for a thousand years, had been brought back to the true faith by Meneses in the space of a few months. The Jornada is divided into three books with continuous pagination.
Ad 2: Published under a separate title, these two texts do infact belong together forming with the Histoire orientale, a single book: the title page is printed on fol. A2a 7 (so the series of quires continues uninterrupted) and the privileges on the last page are for the complete book: (1) and (2). Following the dedication to Abbot Gilles de Sprimont, as the first part, is the Remonstrance Catholique by Jean Baptise Glen. He expands on the Histoire Orientale and the edifying lessons the inhabitants of the Southern Netherlands can draw from it, including interesting remarks on  the christian syro-malabar ritual and liturgy, purified from the influence of Nestorianism, a Christian heresy that held Jesus to be two distinct persons; the human and divine, closely and inseparably united. Nestorianism was practically dead in Europe after 451, but survived outside the Roman Empire through missionary expansion into Arabia, China, and India from the 6th century, declining steadily after 1300.
The subsequent part is by Aleixo de Menezes on the Mass of the first Christians, the Messe des anciens Chrestiens on pp. 77-123 in which he deals with the content of the Mass and in which he gives the full Latin text of it. These two parts together, published as one book, are considered as a major contribution to the history of Christianity in India in general and the Thomas Christians on the Malabar coast in particular.

Fine copy with written ownership's entries on title: "Wiese 1609" and on the recto of the second fly-leaf: "Hisc Liber pertinet ad me Carolum Boromeum Josephum Revel". With a large engraving depicting a Biblical scene with the inscriptions 'Soyes les imitateur de Dieu. Eph 55' and 'Ayez soin de faire tout selon ce modele qui vous a été montré sur la montagne. Heb.8.5' mounted on the verso of the second fly-leaf facing the title.- (Old repairs in the first two lvs., some letters filled in on p. 3, narrow top margins, some shaved).
Bibl. Belg. III, G3; Cioranescu, 33232, 33233; Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, III, I, pp. 320-1, 395.

Related Subjects: Cartography  Catholicism  India  Portugal  Religion 

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