Extremely rare work on the Philippines and the martyrs of Japan

San Antonio, Juan Francisco de. Chronicas de la Apostolica Provincia de S. Gregorio de religiosos descalzos de N.S.P. S. Francisco en las Islas Philipinas, China, Japon, &c.

€ 35.000,00

Vital early source for the history of the Philippines and the Catholic mission in the Far East in an extremely rare copy. In addition to a geographical description of the archipelago that was so detailed and precise it was useful to mariners as well as to scholars, this set features a magnificent engraving and account of the crucifixion of the 26 Martyrs of Japan in 1597, a crucial turning-point in the history of Japanese Christianity.

Particularly rare as a set, these volumes are also a testimony to the eighteenth-century printing industry in Manila. Volume I covers the Philippines, their geography, culture and conquest by Spain. The second covers the first Spanish missions to Macao and China, while the third volume, the most extensive, covers the Japanese mission.

Catholic missionaries first came to Japan in 1549 and were initially tolerated by the Shogunate in hopes they would reduce the power of Buddhist monks and facilitate trade with the Spanish and Portugese empires. Soon, however, the Japanese authorities became alarmed over the extent of European colonialism. In 1587, the Chancellor Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the expulsion of Christians from the realm. In 1596, 26 Catholic missionaries were arrested and crucified: this and other sporadic persecutions drove Christianity completely underground in Japan. When western missionaries were allowed to return in the nineteenth century, they found a native Christian community whose practices and beliefs had been deeply transformed by the intervening centuries of persecution.

Extremely rare, particularly as a set in such good condition. A search of the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue shows only four complete sets in European public collections (in the Bavarian State Library, Fulda, and the French and Spanish National Libraries). Only one other set has appeared at auction in the last fifty years.

A remarkable testimony to the Catholic mission in the Far East and eighteenth-century printing in the Philippines.