‎SOCIETY OF JESUS - SOCIETA IESU - Charles Le GOBAIN - Jean Baptiste du HALDE - Louis PATOUILLET ( editors ) :‎
‎Lettres édifiantes et curieuses écrites des missions étrangères. 32 consecutive volumes, uniformly bound (a series composed in the late 18th c.)‎

‎" Paris, different publishers: Le Clerc, Mercier, Barbou, Mérigot, Bordelet, Guérin, Ruault, De Hansy; 1706 - 1774 (1781), 30 volumes format in-12°, (16 x 8,5 cm). The series are illustrated with 19 folding maps (vol.V: Passage par terre à la Californie; vol.7 Côte du Pérou, Carte de la Terre de Feu; vol.8 Nagasaki; vol.XI carte des Philippines, carte des îles Marianne ; vol.XII Mission des Moxes, Cours du fleuve Maragnon ; vol.XIV Île de Ponghou , île de Formose ; vol.XV Carnate ; vol.16 carte du Tong-King , idem (different version) ; vol.XVIII les îles Caroline ; vol.XXI Le Paragua ; vol.XXIII Presqu'île des Indes ; vol.XXVIII Îles Lieou-Kieou. vol.XXXI carte du Tong-King , idem (different version) . Three maps are missing: vol.VI Nouvelle Phillipine ; vol.XVI Île d'Orléans and vol. 27 Cap françois. Volumes 1-2 & 3-4 are each bound together. The series is uniformly bound in late 18th c. full leather; with raised decorated spines, each volume with a red leather title label and a green volume number. Vol. XVI has a different binding and has obviously been added to the series as it is also a much later edition. Some volumes have weak joints, most have wear at the extremeties (head caps & corners). But generally the volumes still have solid bindings. The interiors are in fine/good condition. The five first volumes are contemporary re-issues, published 5 or 10 years after the original. Volume VI till vol. XXXII are all in first edition (except vol. 16 which has been added). The last volumes of the series (vol. 33 & 34) published in 1776 are missing. A complete collation is available upon simple demand by email. This monumental series was started by Charles le Gobien (Tome 1 - 8) ; continued by Jean-Baptiste du Halde (Tome 9-26) ; and finally Louis Patouillet (Tome 27-34) . The purpose was to report on the history and new events of the China mission of the Jesuits. Very soon this was expanded to literally the whole world : South and North America, ( with Canada, New York, Ohio, Michigan), Japan, India...When J.B. du Halde took over as editor more attention was given to exact and applied science. This was done to gain the support of the Chinese emperor. In 1758 the publication came to a halt due to the rising political difficulties encountered by the Jesuit order. Publication resumed in 1773: exactly the year when the Jesuit order was suppressed in Europe. Complete homogeneous series are allmost non-existant; not surprisingly , in view of the very long publication history and the rising hostilty versus the Jesuit order in the second half of the 18th c. Our series was composed at the end of the 18th c. (probably between 1774 and 1776 - which might explain the absence of the two last volumes). From the many different contemporary provenances we can deduce the the first owner went to a lot of effort to form the series. During or just after the French revolution the series landed in Belgium. Most volumes have a (feeble) modern stamp of a Belgian religious institute. Among the original French provenances (in ex-libris manuscript or with a stamp) we encounter: vol. .5 & 18) Les Filles Lazaristes Paris; vol. 7 & 20 : Biblioth. du Seminaire S. Sulpice (small stamp). Vol. 11 : Barnabit (Barnabilarum S. Eligii Paris). vol.27 : Coll. Rothomagensis (Rennes). Vol.10 contains an ex dono manuscrit du R.P. du Halde ''A la congrégation des Mess. dans la maison professe a St. Louis''. Despite the 2 missing last volumes and the 16th vol. from a later edition this series remains an impressive, important and excessively rare proof of the interest in the exploits of the Jesuit Order all over the world. A fervent collector succeeded in composing this impressive series. He had to overcome the hostility against the Jesuits (very strong after the suppression of the Order in 1773 ; and the problem of the long publication history. A few years later (in 1781) he would have been able to procure a complete reworked re-issue. Other re-issues would follow well into the 19th c. Here we offer a series with 31 (out of 34) volumes in first edition; or - for the 4 first volumes- contemporary re-issues. Sabin 40697. Sommervogel III. 1514 ; IV 34-35 ; V 536 ; VI 353-354. (Texte en français disponible)."‎

Reference : 55034

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