First and only edition of a rare account on the confinement and death of cardinal Charles Thomas Maillard de Tournon (1668-1710), written by the Italian friar Giovanni Pellegrino Dandi (1664-1726).
In 1702 Tournon was appointed by the Roman Catholic church to promote the Catholic faith in China and the East Indies, to establish harmony among the missionaries there and to enforce the decision of the Holy Office against the further toleration of the so-called Chinese rites among the native Christians. He headed for India (Pondicherry) in 1703 and later went to the Coromandel Coast. On 11 July 1704 he set sail for China by way of the Philippine Islands, arriving at Macau on 2 April, and at Beijing on 4 December 1705. The Kangxi Emperor received him kindly at first, but upon hearing that he came to abolish the Chinese rites among the native Christians, he demanded from all missionaries on pain of immediate expulsion a promise to retain these rites. At Rome the Holy Office had meanwhile decided against the rites on 20 November 1704, and being acquainted with this decision, the legate issued a decree at Nanjing on 25 January 1707, obliging the missionaries under pain of excommunication to abolish these rites. Thereupon, the emperor ordered Tournon to be imprisoned at Macau and sent some Jesuit missionaries to Rome to protest against the decree. Tournon died in his prison, shortly after being informed that he had been created cardinal on 1 August 1707. The mission and legation of Tournon is described in detail by Killian Stumpf in his Acta Pekinensia.
Spine slightly damaged. Good copy. Cordier, Sinica, col. 912; WorldCat (2 copies); not in Löwendahl; Lust.