[Americana]. TORRES BOLLO (Diego de); VAEZ (Francisco). Brev - Lot 128

[Americana]. TORRES BOLLO (Diego de); VAEZ (Francisco). Breve Relatione del P. Diego de Torres della Compagnia di Giesù. Procuratore della Provincia del Perù, circa il frutto che si raccoglie con gli Indiani di quel Regno. Doue si raccontano anche alcuni particolari notabili successi gli anni prossimi passati. Per consolatione de i Religiosi di detta Compagnia in Europa. Al fine s'aggiunge la lettera annua dell'Isole Filippine del 1600. In Venetia, Appresso Gio. Battista Ciotti Sanese. All'Aurora, 1604. In-12 (155 x 100mm), 101 p., [1] blank f., pastiche ivory vellum, smooth spine, handwritten title throughout (soiling to binding, very discreet flaws in lower margin). Extremely rare edition. Originally published in 1603 in Rome, the Breve Relatione by Diego de Torres Bollo (1550-1638), Jesuit procurator for the province of Peru, is one of the first printed accounts of the Jesuits' early missionary activities in South America. Its success was immediate: after Milan in the same year, the work was republished in Venice in 1604, then translated into French, German, Latin (1603), Polish and Spanish. Constructed in the manner of many Jesuit accounts of the period, it includes several missionary letters written with the aim of attracting new vocations for missionary work in South America. Among them are letters from Fathers Gio Romero and Gasparo di Monroy of Tucuman (p.24), Andrea Ortiz (p.33) and Diego Samaniego (p.35) of Santa Croce della Serra, and Diego Vasquez (p.42). The final part of the book contains the annual letter written from the Philippines by Father Francesco Vaez on June 10, 1601, with reports from the Jesuit Residences of Manila, Antipolo, Zebu, Samar, Dulac and Alangalan. "Diego de Torres, born in Villalpando in 1550 or 1551 of a noble Spanish family, began his novitiate in Valladolid. He was sent to Peru as a missionary, then returned to Rome as procurator of his order, where he published his report. He then returned to America with 60 religious and founded the mission of Paraguay. He died in Buenos-Ayres in 1638 at the age of 87, having spent 67 years in the Company. (Leclerc) (USTC 4030300, 4 copies; Sabin 96253; Leclerc, 1480).