TRIGAULT, Nicolas (1577–1628); RICCI, Matteo (1552–1610). De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu. Augsburg: Christoph Mang, 1615.

Very rare first edition of the most influential Western description of China since the 13th-century account by Marco Polo. “The appearance of Trigault's book in 1615 took Europe by surprise. It reopened the door to China, which was first opened by Marco Polo, three centuries before, and then closed behind him by an incredulous public, who received the greater part of his fabulous narrative as the beguiling tales of a capricious traveler. [It] probably had more effect on the literary and scientific, the philosophical and the religious phases of life in Europe than any other historical volume on the 17th century […] It opened a new world" (Gallagher, China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matteo Ricci, pp. xvii–ix).

Trigault was born at Douai in 1577 and joined the Jesuits when he was 17 or 18 years old. After spending a decade teaching in the Society’s colleges, he petitioned to be sent as a missionary to the “Indies”, finally securing passage in 1607. He seems to have arrived in China in about 1610, and was in charge of the mission in three provinces. At this time, the Japan mission, founded by Francis Xavier (1506–1552), overshadowed that of their brethren in China; but Trigault was part of a band of missionaries that, through Matteo Ricci’s (1552–1610) influence and diplomacy, had managed to obtain prestige in the Ming Empire by becoming the first westerners to learn Mandarin and offer new forms of knowledge to the Chinese elite. Seeing the need to promote their cause and secure better patronage in the Society’s hierarchy, the China Jesuits decided to send Trigault back home and entrust him with the sensitive task of bringing attention to their successes in China.

Back in Rome, Trigault was feted as a celebrity, no doubt helped by the artefacts he had brought with him, and undertook a lengthy continental promotion tour lasting some four years. Part of Trigault’s approach was to publish the manuscript memoirs of Ricci from Italian into Latin. By 1614 he had completed this task, amending the contents to include an account of the latter's death and funeral, and published it in 1615 while travelling through Augsburg. The folding plate illustrates Ricci's tomb in Beijing – an exceptional burial for a westerner granted by the Ming Emperor Wanli (1563–1620). Cordier Sinica I, 809; De Backer & Sommervogel VIII, 239; Lust 836; Morrison II, 466; Streit V:2094.

Quarto (192 × 150mm). With errata leaf and final blank (table of contents bound between quires A and B). Engraved title-page by Wolfgang Kilian (1581–1662) illustrating the Jesuit missionaries Francis Xavier and Matteo Ricci flanking a map of China, folding engraved plate with diagram of Ricci's tomb in China (small hole in 2N4, few marginal dampstains, light spotting, few small wormholes). Contemporary speckled calf (upper board rejointed, lightly rubbed). Provenance: Heinrich Anton van der Keer (prize inscription in Latin, dated 26 August 1734, given by Franz Bernhard, Baron von Westrem von Gottendorf, Abbot of Michaelsberg Abbey at Siegburg (d. 1735), attested by Johan Groethuysen, headmaster of the gymnasium at Straelen).