China, the Chinese Rites Controversy, the Roman Catholic Chu...

Hammer

£350

China, the Chinese Rites Controversy, the Roman Catholic Church and the Dominicans (Order of Preachers) - [Fatinelli (Giovanni Giacomo), Tabaglio (Giuseppe Maria, OP), De Tournon (Cardinal Charles-Thomas Maillard)], Considerazioni sù la scrittura intitolata riflessioni sopra la causa della Cina dopò venuto in Europa il decreto dell' Emo di Tournon, first edition, [Rome]: 1709, pp: 124, [3], [1] (blank), contemporary carta rustica wrappers, red-speckled edges, 4to, [Streit VII, 2549-2550], [1]

A work relating to Cardinal Maillard de Tournon (aka Carlo Tommaso; 1668-1710), papal legate and cardinal to the East Indies and China, and his controversial policies towards China. In 1704, he arrived at Macau, and at Beijing later on in 1705, where Kangxi received him kindly at first, but upon hearing that he came to abolish the Chinese rites (offering sacrifices to Confucius and the ancestors, and in using the Chinese names Tiān (heaven) and Shàngdì (supreme emperor) for the God of the Christians) among the native Christians, he demanded from all missionaries on pain of immediate expulsion a promise to retain these rites. At Rome, the Holy Office had meanwhile decided against the rites, and Tournon being acquainted with this decision, issued a decree at Nanjing obliging the missionaries under pain of excommunication to abolish these rites. Hereupon, Kangxi ordered Tournon to be imprisoned at Macau and send some Jesuit missionaries to Rome to protest against the decree.

Copy with "dopò" (instead of "doppo") in the title, as stated by Streit for the 1709 first edition, and the "Riposta" to verso, but not yet paginated as in the second edition.

Provenance: 1) Contemporary ink MS numbering to lower-right margin of title-page; 2) Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013), later red ownership stamp to lower-left margin of title-page.