NEU-VIALLE, Jean Sylvain de Neu-vialle (1696–1764). Relaçao da jornada, que fez no Imperio da China. Lisbon: Antonio Pedrozo Calram, 1754.
8vo (203 x 140 mm). Modern cloth gilt. Provenance: contemporary inscription on title-page; Vicomte de Faria (book label on verso of title-page).
FIRST EDITION. "An extremely rare little publication, describing the journey from Macau to Pekin, of the Portuguese Ambassador, Senhor Francisco Xaxier Assiz Pacheco e Sampayo, and his cordial reception by the Emperor of China at the Court of Pekin. The writer, who was a Portuguese Jesuit in Macau, and addressed his report to a brother-Jesuit in Lisbon (the Jesuit Procurator-General for the Province of Japan), gives a full account of the diplomatic formalities that took place in the Throne room on the Ambassador's arrival, and the elaborate system of translating the King of Portugal's letter into Chinese, and the Emperor's reply; the processions, banquets, pastoral play in the gardens belonging to a high mandarin, and other social functions devised for the entertainment of their guest." (Maggs). RARE: The Maggs copy is the only copy to have sold at auction in nearly a century (Maggs, catalogue no. 521, Bibliotecha Asiatica et Africana, Part V, 1929).
