China.- Ricci (Matteo) De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta...libri V, edited and translated by Nicolas Trigault, first edition, engraved architectural title by Wolfgang Kilian incorporating Ricci's map of China flanked by portraits of the author and St. Francis Xavier, woodcut initials and ornaments, with errata/colophon leaf at end but lacking folding plan and final blank, title lightly soiled and with small stain, modern calf-backed marbled boards, blue edges (bleeding very slightly into margins), [Cordier BS 809; Löwendahl 54], 4to, Augsburg, Christoph Mang, 1615.

⁂ The most influential firsthand account of China since Marco Polo, by Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), the celebrated pioneer Jesuit missionary to China. After his death there in 1610 Ricci's Italian journals were translated and edited for publication by Nicolas Trigault, another member of the mission. China had closed itself off from the West after Marco Polo's journeys in the 13th century and Ricci's work revived interest in the country, with further editions and translations appearing in the following years although a complete English translation was not published until 1953.