Add MS 8783

SOCIETY OF JESUS: Petition to Pope Innocent XII over the Chinese Rites Controversy; 1698. Latin. Copy. The text is related to a dispute that arose in the second half of the 17th century between the Jesuits and other missionaries regarding the observance of ancient Chinese Rites and the use of Chinese names for God (Tien and Shang Di) among the catholic converts of China; see The Chinese Rites Controversy. Its History and Meaning, ed. by D. E. Mungello (Nettetal, 1994). The petition contests the arguments of a mandate issued in 1693 by the Apostolic Vicar of the province of Fujian, father Charles Maigrot of the Société des Missions Estrangères de Paris, and presented by the Société to the Pope in 1697. The text is a summary of a larger work presented to the Sacred Congregation of de Propaganda Fide around 1699-1700 with the title Expositio facti de controversiis Sinensibus secundum Patres Societatis Iesu adiuncta ad relationem Facti de de iisdem in Sacra Congregatione Particulari exhibita et ex mandato Sanctissimi N. D. Innocenti XII ipsis communicatam. The Expositio... was published in 1700: see B.L. copy 4766.aaa.11.(4), and a MS. copy in Eg. 2212, ff. 114-174v, together with other papers concerning the controversy. Other related correspondence and papers in Add. 26816-26818. The present MS. is entitled (f. 1) 'Libellus supplex a Societate Iesu sanctissimo oblatus mense Maio anno MDCXCVIII super rebus et controversiis sinensibus velut compendiolum grandioris voluminis Sacrae Congregationi Sancti Officii antea exhibiti'. Inc. (f. 2) 'Innocentio XII summo pontifici / Sanctissime Pater / Provoluta ad pedes Sanctitatis Vestrae Societas Iesu humillime supplicat', expl. (f. 58v) 'quam in China omni obsequiorum genere in Deo et propter Deum inseruire'. Text divided into two parts (ff. 5, 15v), with the second part subdivided into seven chapters. A later note on f. i supplies the price of the MS. 'prezzo £12', later corrected in '14 = 8'. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '176' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown: incorrect reference to the sale lot. Purchased, together with Add. 8779, 8780, 8781, and 8803, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 170 (part).

Paper; ff. 58+ii. 255 x 192mm. Late 17th-early 18th-cent. binding of full vellum. The impression in relief of a text written in reverse visible under the vellum cover of the upper pasteboard.