8vo. Volume I: xii, 562 pp. [1, errata], engraved portrait frontispiece / Volume II: 603 pp, [1, errata] / Volume III: 449 pp., contemporary half calf with marbled boards and edges, covers slightly rubbed round corners, occasional foxing, otherwise set in good condition, Typographic Society of Classical Italians, Milan, 1806.

Synopsis

Maffei’s principal work and 12 years in the writing, is concerned mainly with the Portuguese conquests, the Jesuit stations in India, the East Indies, China, Brazil including the area around the Arabian Sea. The book is based on meticulously selected primary materials, to which Maffei was given access in Portugal and Spain. He was also in Rome when the Japanese embassy arrived in 1585, hence may have had the opportunity to interview eyewitnesses. This work was extremely popular: by 1621 it had gone through 10 Latin editions and two each in French and Italian.