GONZALEZ de MENDOZA, Juan (1545-1618). Dell' historia della China. Venice: Andrea Muschio, 1586.
Octavo (145 x 97mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, woodcut head- and tail-pieces. (Small marginal dampstain to several leaves, small hole and stain on title-page, some spotting.) Later vellum, red speckled edges.
FIRST ITALIAN EDITION OF THE FIRST SERIOUS SURVEY OF CHINA. Juan González de Mendoza, a Spanish Augustinian friar, compiled one of the most influential early Western accounts of China despite never visiting the country himself. His work, Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China (Rome, 1585), synthesized reports from missionaries like Martín Ignacio and utilized Chinese texts collected by Martín de Rada in Fujian (1575).
The book became a Renaissance bestseller, rapidly translated into Italian (1586), French (1588), English (1588), German (1589), and Latin (1589). It covered China’s geography, politics, religion, and maritime activities, including the first published Chinese characters in a Western work. Though Mendoza’s planned embassy to China (1580–1583) was aborted due to Philippine unrest, Pope Gregory XIII later commissioned his authoritative chronicle, which shaped European perceptions for decades. Figures like Francis Bacon and Walter Raleigh relied on it as their primary source on China. Adams G-868; Cordier Sinica 10-11; Löwendahl 21; Lust 23; Palau 105.504; Sabin 27779.
