New edition, intended as a supplement to the various collections of *Lettres édifiantes* (see Backer & Sommervogel II, 1075; Cordier, Japonica, 424).
Some foxing, minor scuffs, and small paper flaws on the boards.
Contemporary half grey calf bindings, flat spines decorated with blind-stamped romantic arabesques and gilt fillets, gilt decorative rolls at foot, small green vellum tips, boards covered with geometric-patterned paper, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges; romantic period bindings.
First reissue of the *Histoire de l'établissement, des progrès et de la décadence du christianisme dans l'Empire du Japon*, originally published in 1715 in three 12mo volumes. The Louvain edition (1828–1829) is a later Belgian counterfeit, published after our edition.
This was the first work by the Jesuit Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix (1682–1761), compiled from existing sources (notably Crasset and Daniele Bartoli) before his own travels in North America. It should not be confused with his *Histoire et description générale du Japon* (1736, 2 vols. 4to).
A handsome copy in contemporary romantic binding.