Vita Gasparis Barzaei, Belgae e Societate Iesu, B. Xaverii in India socij.

8vo: [14-2 bl.]-338-[20-2 bl.] pp. (sl. toning, some expert marginal repairs).

Mod. vellum, flat spine titled in ink. Very good copy.

Rare first edition of the biography of the Jesuit Gaspar Berse (Goes, Zeeland 1515-1553). After his studies in Leuven he went to Coimbra in 1546 where he entered the Jesuit order. In 1548 he was sent to Ormuz (Persian Gulf) and in 1551 to Goa where the well-known François Xavier, who would soon depart for Japan, appointed him director of St. Paul’s College in Goa and entrusted him with the provincialate of the Indian Mission. He died in Goa on 6 October 1553. Trigault (1577-1628) was himself a Jesuit missionary to China, arriving in Nanjing in 1611. This edition was published just prior to his departure. He eventually traveled to Hangzhou where he worked until his death in 1628. Woodcut mark on title.
Ref. DBS VIII:238:2. - STCV 6684496. - Not in BB.