Lettera Annale de Giapone scritta al Padre Generale della Campagnia de Gieusu by Luis Frois
Fróis, Luís (1532-1597). Lettera Annale de Giapone scritta al Padre Generale della Campagnia de Gieusu. Alli 20. Di Febraro M.D.LXXXVIII. Roma: Francesco Zannetti, 1590. 119, [1] pp.
Printed on early vellum. Italian text.
One of the most important and rarest books of Jesuit letters from Japan with the first published account of the edict of 24 July 1587 of Toyotomi Hideyoshi for the persecution of all Christians. The edict orders all missionaries to leave Japan within 20 days, but Gaspar Coelho (who was the head of all Japanese missions) managed to obtain a six-month extension in view of the unavailability of ships, but had to accept the internment of all missionaries on the Island of Hirado until their departure from Japan. The willingness of some of the Christian feudal lords to take over the custody of the missionaries dampens tensions, but the standing of missions and missionaries is changed in a fundamental and irreversible way. Hideyoshi had become concerned because the loyalty of many of his allies and generals to the priests and the manner in which inroads made by the missionaries were dismantling Japanese institutions from within. This made the missionaries and their activities a stumbling block to Hideyoshi’s ambitions to unify Japan and his long-term plans of restoring the previous balance of Japanese social structure. After issuing the edict, Hideyoshi promotes anti-Christian sentiments and continues to restrict missisionary activity. This trend continues after Hideyoshi died in 1598 and the Tokugawa shogunate that succeeded him banned all forms of Christianity in 1620 and closed Japan for more than 200 years. The importance and shocking nature of this news is emphasized by the fact that Frois’ letter was re-issued in Milan in the same year, and appears simultaneously in three translated editions in the same year (French edition in Anvers, Portuguese edition in Coimbra, and German edition in Dillingen). Luis Frois was born in Portugal in 1532, joined the Jesuits at an early age, follows Father Gaspar Barzeus to the East Indies in 1548, arrived in Japan in 1563, and died there in 1597. He is considered the “historian” among the missionaries in Japan because of the wealth of information and accuracy of the content of his letters. All editions of Frois’ letters are extremely rare.
Provenance: with ink stamp of St Hugh’s Parkminster on the verso of the title. In the late 1990s St Hugh's Parkminster, a post-Reformation Carthusian monastery in West Sussex in the UK decided to help raise funds for building a convent in Ireland by selling books from their huge library. The book was purchased from a bookseller who had purchased it directly from St Hugh’s.
In very good condition with only minor age wear. nb35120020
