Beschreibung:

China travel of 17th century. SEMEDO. Historica relatione del gran regno della Cina. China travel of 17th century. SEMEDO, Alvarez. Historica relatione del gran regno della Cina. Roma, Vitale Mascardi a spese di Biagio Diuersino, e Zanobio Masotti, 1653 4to, 215x150 mm; quarter vellum binding; pp. 8 nn. incl. title page and plate with portrait, 309, 15 nn. with Index; woodcut Initials and ornaments. Unsophisticated copy with sign of dampstain.
Very rare Italian illustrated edition. One of the most interesting works on China of the Ming period. It deals with every aspect of Chinese civilization: of people, of banquets, of clothing, of studies, of games, of science, of the organization of society with particular regard to nobility, as well as of many other customs and traditions. Of considerable interest because it tells the growing political-social upheavals that accompanied the last years of the Ming dynasty. The second part, which concerns the history of the missionaries in China and therefore the relations established between China and Europe starting from the 16th century, begins on page 209. The Portuguese Jesuit Semedo arrived in China in 1613 and remained there for twenty-four years. becoming Procurator of the Provinces of China and Japan from 1642. Cordier 14; Lach III, p. 349; No in British e Piantanida. Traduzione di Giovanni Battista Giattini, cfr.: Bruni & Evans, Italian 17th cent. books, p. 300 n. 5007.