Small 4to (191 x 152mm). Half-title, woodcut device on title-page; head-pieces and initials, diagrams and tables in the text; with the blank Zz4. (Faint dampstain to title-page and dedication, sig. D dampstained in margin, touching marginal notes.) Later? quarter calf, contemporary speckled boards, all edges mottled red (boards rubbed, several wormholes to spine, first compartment with paper label repair). Provenance: 1819 notation on half-title.

FIRST EDITION of the history of China to 6 B.C.E., showing illustrations of an Abaco, the Book of Changes, and various examples of the Chinese alphabet. Martini had planned a great chronological work of the whole history of China, but only the first part was ever published. The first and only part to be published of a projected history of China from the earliest times; it is dedicated to the Emperor Leopold I. The author, who studied mathematics under Athanasius Kircher, joined the Jesuit mission in China in 1643. In 1650, he was sent to Rome as procurator for the Chinese mission and over the next eight years published, apart from the present work, his celebrated Novus Atlas Sinensis and De Bello Tartarico. He returned to China in 1658 and died there three years later. Cordier I, p.580; De Backer & Sommervogel V, 650 ("La premiere Decade a seule paru"); Graesse IV, 430; Löwendahl 120; cf. Lust 412.