Rare first edition, in the original Portuguese, of a detailed eye-witness account of the travels and religious work of Aleixo de Menezes (1559-1617), Archbishop of Goa, by António de Gouveia (ca. 1568/75-1628), who accompanied him during much of his work on India's Malabar coast. It gives special emphasis to his subjugation of the Saint Thomas Christians to Rome. This community had been established in Malabar in the first centuries of the first millennia and had been part of the Eastern Christian Church. Its existence was unknown to Europeans until Vasco da Gama came to India in 1498. De Menezes, appointed Archbishop of Goa in 1595, was particularly aggressive in persecuting those who did not follow Rome's Latin rite.
Although the second work was clearly designed to accompany the first it is rarer and even when it is bound with the first work it is sometimes found incomplete. The present copy is complete, including even the final integral blank leaf. It provides a further account of the Saint Thomas Christians, including the official documents of the 1599 Synod of Diamper.
Today even Catholics deplore the destruction of this ancient branch of Christianity, but the two present works preserve a remarkable record of what was lost, giving many details of the group's history, practices and liturgy.
Lacks the last 9-leave chapter of ad. 2: Missa. With a few contemporary annotations. Binding slightly rubbed. Pages slightly browned. Some small holes in the margins of the first few pages and a stain to the same. Margins of the last few pages repaired. Otherwise in good condition. Ad 1: Goldsmith BMC STC Spain & Portugal G304; Palau 106451 note; Porbase (8 copies); ad 2: Porbase (1 incomplete copy); not in Goldsmith; Palau.