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First French edition of the most important work on China of the 17th century

TRIGAULT, Nicolas.
Histoire de l'expedition Chrestienne au royaume de la Chine, entreprinse par les PP. de la compagnie de Iesus, comprinse en cinq livres, esquels est traicté fort exactement  et fidelement des moeurs, loix, & coustumes du pays, & des  commencemens tres-difficiles de l'église naissante en ce royaume. Tirée des commentaires du Matthieu Riccius, et nouvellement  traduicte en françois par D. F. de Riquebourg-Trigault.

With richly engraved allegorical title and full-page engraved portrait of prince Philippe Guillaume of Orange, both signed by J. de Fornazeris, and large folding plan of the palace in the suburbs of Peking presented by the king of China to the Jesuits in 1610.

With richly engraved allegorical title and full-page engraved portrait of prince Philippe Guillaume of Orange, both signed by J. de Fornazeris, and large folding plan of the palace in the suburbs of Peking presented by the king of China to the Jesuits in 1610.

With richly engraved allegorical title and full-page engraved portrait of prince Philippe Guillaume of Orange, both signed by J. de Fornazeris, and large folding plan of the palace in the suburbs of Peking presented by the king of China to the Jesuits in 1610.



Lyons, for Horace Cardon, 1616. 8vo. Contemporary overlapping vellum, red sprinkled edges. With richly engraved allegorical title and full-page engraved portrait of prince Philippe Guillaume of Orange, both signed by J. de Fornazeris, and large folding plan of the palace in the suburbs of Peking presented by the king of China to the Jesuits in 1610. [40], 1096 pp.

First French edition of one of the most important and earliest works on China ever published in Europe. It contains the diary of the pioneer Jesuit missionary in China, Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), edited and brought up-to-date by Ricci's successor to the Chinese Mission, the Flemish Jesuit Nicolas Trigault (1577-1628).
When Ricci arrived in China in 1582 he soon realized that the only way to convert the Chinese was to adapt as much as possible to Chinese life. He learned the Chinese language and took a Chinese name. He also sought the friendship of the Chinese Confucian scholars, and studied Chinese literature and science. So he obtained official  permission to settle near Canton, and finally after some more settlements in Nanchang, 1595, and in Nanjing, 1599, he received Imperial permission to establish a post in Peking, in 1610. All those years Ricci kept a journal, presenting a history of the Jesuit mission in China from its beginning in 1582 to his death in 1610, the same year Trigault arrived at Peking. The diary itself contains already a wealth of information on China, but it is also preceeded by eleven chapters describing Chinese geography, people, laws, government, customs, religion, learning, commerce, etc. When Trigault returned to Europe in 1613, he translated Ricci's manuscript into Latin, and enlarged it with information from other sources, such as the reports by the Portugese Jesuits Longobardo, Vagnone and Cattaneo of their own stays in China, with extracts from the usual annual letters for the years 1610 and 1611 by Father Sabatino de Ursis, etc., as well as by his own comments and observations. When Trigault's book was published it shook Europe. Never before had such well organized and accurate information about China been available. It opened the door to China which had been closed since Marco Polo, and just like Ricci had introduced Euclid to China, so his journal introduced Confucius to Europe.
Ricci and Trigault's account of China  was undoubtedly most influencial on cultural life and philosophical thought in Europe, opening up a new, mysterious and until then virtually unknown world. Suddenly Europe became aware for the first time of the existance of another highly civilized vast part of the globe. The book was first published in Latin at Augsburg  in 1615, and first in French at Lyons in 1616. A second french edition was published already a year later at Lille, in 1617. The French translation was made by Trigault's nephew, Riquebourg-Trigault, physician to Philippe Guillaume of Orange - the Roman-Catholic brother of William I 'The Silent' of Nassau -, to which the Lyon-edition is dedicated. The work was almost immediately famous; it was republished numerous times and translated in most European languages. First editions, however, are rare, especially this first French edition including the portrait. 

Binding rubbed; folding plan with clean tear and slightly wrinkled; some occasional staining. Good copy.
De Backer & Sommervogel VIII, col. 240; Cordier, Sinica 810; Lust 839; Morrison II, 258; Europa und die Kaiser von China, 3/21 (Latin ed. of 1615); Streit V, 2094 (idem); J. Gernet, China and the Christian Impact (1985), p. 7; L. J. Callagher, China in the sixteenth century (1953), p. XXVII ff.; Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe I, 2, p. 801 ff.

Related Subjects: Cartography  China  Jesuits  Mission 

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