RHODES (Alexandre de). Divers voyages en la Chine et autres - Lot 189

RHODES (Alexandre de). Divers voyages en la Chine et autres Roiaumes de l'Orient, avec son retour en Europe par la Perse et l'Arménie. Paris, Mabre-Cramoisy, 1666. In-4, (8)-342 p., (1) f., contemporary brown calf, ribbed spine, restorations (spine rubbed and warped, epidermis on boards; sporadic stains, 2 f. of book A rebacked and short margins). Second, enlarged edition. The first was published in Paris in 1653. Alexandre de Rhodes (1591-1660), a French Jesuit missionary of Spanish descent (de Roueda or de Rhoda), originally from Avignon, set sail for the East Indies in the spring of 1619. Arriving in Macao in 1623, he attempted to penetrate Japan, but this was no longer possible at the time. He headed for Cochinchina, then Tonkin in 1627. Arrested and banished, he returned to Rome in 1646, then after a three-year rest, set off on a new mission to Persia, where he died in 1660. Provenance: Nicolas Lagoutte, avocat en parlement, docteur agrégé de l'université de Dijon (armorial bookplate). (Cordier, III, 2080).