Parisiis ( Paris ) , Apud Michaëlem Sonnium , Via Iacobæa , sub scuto Basiliensi. M.D.LXXII (1572) , in-8°, 175 x 107 mm, (12)nn pp (title with wood engraved vignette, privilege, dedication, index) + (492) pp (leaves numbered 1-45, 46 unnumbered, 47-246), last 2 index leaves misbound (after quire A) but complete. (a8.A8.ê2.B8-Z8.Aa8-Hh8). Bound in contemporary overlapping limp vellum, traces of ties, large manuscript title in gothic lettering on spine. Contemporary manuscript ex-libris of an unidentified jesuit college written in the upper margin of the title. First quire with a rectangular clear waterstain at the lower inner margin, quire F also with this waterstain, some browning and some marginal worm holes at some pages but in all a good and complete copy. Manuel da Costa ( Acosta ) (Lisbon 1541-1604) collected these letters which illustrate the history of the first contacts between the Western and Eastern civilisation. It includes letters from e.g. the Jesuit Francis Xavier who introduced Christianity in Japan in 1549. The original text in Portugese was never published but a translation made in Rome by Maffei was first published in Dillingen (in 1571, one year before this Parisian edition). Our edition also contains the dedication to Cardinal Otto Truchsess von Walburg, former Prince-Bishop of Augsburg, who resided since 1568 in Rome and who was also the founder of the university of Dillingen. He confined this institute to the Jesuit Order in 1563 . See De Backer-Sommervogel vol. II col. 1505. Cordier 59. Lust 804 (for the 1574 Cologne edition)..