Maffei, Giovanni Pietro. Historiarum Indicarum libri XVI

Selectarum, item, ex India Epistolarum, eodem interprete, Libri IV/ Accessit Ignatii Loiola vita. Cologne, In Officina Birckmannicam sumptibus Arnoldi Mylii, 1593, (4),541,(1),(2 blank),(37) p., w. fold. engr. world map after Ortelius (Shirley 166), cont. mottled sheep, gilt and ribbed spine w. manuscript title, folio. Title-p. w. crossed-out former owner's entries (offsetting on free endpaper), library stamp (partly scratched away) and part off blank upper right corner cut out; partly w. (vague) waterst. and some tiny wormholes in lower margin and a few lvs w. waterst. in upper margin. Binding lacks ties and scratched/ worn in places. Minor other internal and external imperfections. W. unidentified large engr. coat of arms and former owner's entry "P. van Ham" in pen on upper pastedown.

Alden/Landis 593/38; Cordier, Japonica, 63. Italian Jesuit author Maffei (1533-1603) was well known for this work on the Portuguese conquests and the Jesuit stations in India and the East Indies, also dealing w. the region of the Arabic Sea, China (book VI) and Japan (book XII, w. added letters concerning Japan, written between 1549 and 1574).