LITERAE P. JO. CHRYSOSTOMI GALL OLYSSIPONAE DATAE. (And,) EXEMPLUM L[ITE]RAR[UM] R.P. TERENTII AS R. PATREM JACOBUM KOLLERUM [Contemporary Transcripts of two Letters of Two Jesuit Missions in China, India and Japan.

Very Rare, A Similar Manuscript Exists in Brussels. We know of no others. The Latin text of both letters is written in a neat, uniform cursive hand in brown. Folio leaves (33 x 20.5 cm), The transcripts bound in 18th Century stiff blue wrappers, the blank paste-downs and endpapers are late 18th century (most likely the third quarter between 1745/1753 and 1776, since they contain a clear "lion/vryheit/pro patria" watermark (with a crowned GR countermark), which resembles Heawood 3148, 3149 and 3154. The paper used for the manuscript contains a (faint) double-headed eagle watermark and it has been reinforced in the gutters. A very pleasing survival, very well preserved, edges slightly mellowed, the wrappers show some signs of wear.

Edizione: very rare manuscript transcripts. chrysostomus johann gall (1586-1643) was a german jesuit and scholar. he left ingolstadt, germany to teach astronomy, mathematics and navigation in lisbon fro 1620to 1627, before leaving to work in the jesuit missions in india. the colégio de santo antào benefitted from the arrival of many foreign mathematicians and other scholars, as lisbon serves as a gateway for all missionaries departing for asia. the original letter by gall was written in lisbon september 1623 and concerns a newspaper style description of various events, including details of the perseution of christians in japan, particularly the execution of large numbers of the christian community in nagasaki in 1622.<br> the second letter in the present work is especially interesting, as the original was written by johannes terentius (also known as johannes schreck an deng yuhan hanpo, 1576-1630). terentius was a prominent jesuit scholar, specialized in natural science and mathematics. before joining the jesuits as a novice1611, he already enjoyed a grea reputation in germany as a scholar. in 1621, terentius left for china to join the jesuit mission. the original letter by terentius was written in hangzhou, china on 30 august 1621 to the rector of teh jesuit college in munich, jakob keller (1568-1631). he discusses his journey to china, which he started in 1618, his intentions to participate in the planned calendar reform in china, and his impressions of the city of hangzhou, which he reached in 1621, terentius wrote several works on european medicine, mathematics and technology in chinese and, together with johann adam schall von bell and g. roho, introduced european tigonometry and european astronomical instruments to china. in 1629 he began to reform the calendar, which j.a. schall von bell ocmpleted after terentius' early death a year later.<br><br>backer & sommervogel vii, col. 1929-f<br>