Add MS 8803

MATTEO RICCI: Treatise on Friendship; 1595-1599, 1724. Chinese, Italian, and Latin. Autograph. A collection of moral sentences from ancient Western authors put together and translated into Chinese by father Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), the famous Jesuit missionary, in Nanchang at the end of 1595, and dedicated to Qian Zhai, prince of Jian'an (Jian'an wang). Ricci's main literary source was probably the 5th edition of Andrea de Rèsende, Sententiae et exempla ex probatissimis quibusque scriptoribus collecta et per locos communes digesta per Andrea Eborensem Lusitanum... (Parigi, 1590), a copy of which was and still is in the ancient Jesuit library of Beijing (Peking): cfr. F. Bortone, P. Matteo Ricci S. I. Il 'Saggio d'Occidente'... (Rome, 1965), p. 254, n. 9., and facing plate. The first version of the compilation contained 76 sentences; a further 24 maxims were added between 1599 and 1601 to reach the round number of 100. Ricci's work was the first text ever written in Chinese by a western author and was immediately received with great interest by Chinese scholars. To satisfy their requests Ricci kept on hand several manuscript copies of his work. The present MS. is an autograph copy of the original Chinese text in its first version. Ricci's note on f. 21, 'Il Padre Matteo lo manda al Padre Geronimo Costa in Roma' suggests that it is the copy with the Italian translation that Ricci sent to his disciple and correspondent the Jesuit father Girolamo Costa on 14 Aug. 1599. For the letter to Costa see P. Tacchi Venturi, Opere storiche del P. Matteo Ricci S. I., II (Macerata, 1913), p. 248. The Chinese text was first published without the author's knowledge before Oct. 1596 in Ningdu by a friend of Ricci, possibly Su Dayong, Vice Prefect of Yingde. It was then republished in Nanjing (Nanking) at the beginning of 1599, probably by Qu Taisu, the author of the preface to the treatise, and again around 1601 by the Chief Procurator Feng Yingjing in Beijing, with a new preface and including the new additional 24 sentences; many other editions followed. A copy of an edition printed by Fu Xiang of Linchuan after 1601, held in Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale 'Vittorio Emanuele', 72.C.467.1, was published by P. D'Elia in 'Il Trattato sull'Amicizia. Primo libro scritto in cinese da Matteo Ricci S.I. (1595), Studia Missionalia, vii (1953), pp. 425-515, together with Ricci's Italian translation, a modern translation by D'Elia, passages from Resende relevant to Ricci's sentences and the original Greek and Latin sources in footnotes. The translation by Ricci used by D'Elia is a copy of the one sent to father Costa, as found, together with the Chinese text, in a MS. now in Rome, Archivio della Pontificia Università Gregoriana, MS. 292, pp. 189-200 (already published in 1825, by M. Ferrucci in Pesaro, and again in 1877, 1885, 1910). For further information and bibliography on Ricci and his work see P. D'Elia, 'Il Trattato...', op. cit.; Maurus Fang Hao, 'Notes on Matteo Ricci's De Amicitia', Monumenta Serica, 14 (1949-1955), pp. 574-583; P. D'Elia, 'Further Notes on Matteo Ricci's De Amicitia', Monumenta Serica, 15:2 (1956), pp. 356-377; F. Bortone, P. Matteo Ricci S. I. Il 'Saggio d'Occidente'... , op. cit., pp. 254-256; J. D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (London-Boston, 1988), pp. 141-142, 150-151, 295 n. 27. The present MS. is entitled (f. 1) 'Della amicizia. Manoscritto originale del padre Matteo Ricci in lingua cinese e dal medesimo autore tradotto in italiano. Scritto nella Cina sulla fine del secolo XVI'. Additional notes by Ricci: - (a) f. 6v, regarding Chinese language and its script, in Latin; - (b) f. 21, regarding the dispatch of the text to Girolamo Costa in Rome with some explanation of the lay out of the Chinese text, in Italian. Endorsement (f. 30) of Ricci's autograph by father Daniele Bartoli, the Jesuit historian (1608-1685), dated 24 Feb. 1670. Notes (ff. 5, 31) and table of contents (f. 32) added by a later hand in Italian. The MS. is mentioned in P. O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum, iv (1989), p. 68. Decorated architectural frontispiece (f. 1). Armorial bookplate of 5th Earl of Guilford, with shelfmark 'L/19/C' (front pastedown). '176' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown: uncorrect reference to the sale lot. Purchased, together with Add. 8779, 8780, 8781, and 8783, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 170 (part). Contents as follows:

1. ff. 2-4v. Preface to the MS.; n.d. Italian. Inc. 'Il Padre Matteo Ricci nacque l'anno dell'era cristiana 1522', expl. 'antichi pregiudizi di una così vanagloriosa Nazione'. In red ink.

2. ff. 7-20v. Li Madou [Matteo Ricci], Jiaoyoulun [Treatise on Friendship]; 1595. Chinese. Autograph. Chinese text in six columns with phonetic transliteration in Latin alphabet at the side of the Chinese characters.

3. ff. 22-29v. Matteo Ricci, De amicitia; 1595. Italian transl. Autograph. Proemium, inc. 'i. Proemio della risposta intorno alla amicitia al Re Chiengan Chinzai. / Io Matteo dall'ultimo oriente navigai il mare', expl. (f. 22v) 'desde la mia fanciullezza e feci il seguente libretto', inc. (f. 23) '2 L'amico non e altra cosa che la metade di me', expl. '78 Nell'anno 23 del Re Vanlie l'anno che si chiama Jeui nella 3^a luna. Un filosofo delli monti dell'occidente Matteo Ricci' with later addition 'de Macerata'.

4. ff. 33-34. Two text fragments in Chinese.

5. ff. 35-58. 'Breve registro delle provincie, città, mandarini, e tributi dell'imperio di Cina', description of China sent by the Franciscan friar Giovanni Battista Maoletti di Serravalle (1669-1725) to a relative of his, Giorgio Maoletti; 1724. Italian. Autograph. Dedication letter, inc. (f. 35v) 'Al Signor D. Giorgio Mavoletti Prevosto e Vicario foraneo di Serravalle / Uno de molti Mandarini miei amici', expl. 'procurarò mandarvi altre relazioni: con che mi raccomando salutando tutti nel Signore. / Da Ciangzefu di Hun Kuang / 22 ottobre 1724 / Vostro affezionatissimo ... Fratello Cugino / Fr G. B. di Serravalle Adi...'. Inc. (f. 36) 'Kang Hi imperatore della Cina morì nella sua infedeltà li 20 di dicembre dell'anno 1722', expl. 'Hoang Imperatore. Imperatore è il maestro di tutti i Scolari, el Principe delle Scuole'. For G. B. Maoletti da Serravalle cfr. Allerhand so lehr- als geistreiche Brief, Schrifften uns Reis-Beschreibungen welche von denen Missionariis der Gesellschafft Jesu..., t. xii (Augsburg-Graz, 1729), no. 295, p. 82, and p. 100, B.L. copy 4767.g.3; Sinica Franciscana, vol. v. Relationes et epistolas illustrissimi D. Fr. Bernardini della Chiesa O.F.M, ed. by PP. A. Van den Wungaert and G. Mensaert O.F.M. (Rome, 1954), p. 514 n. 2, B.L. copy W.P.2771/5.

Paper, Chinese papers for arts. 2-5; ff. 58+iii, plus one unfoliated blank after ff. 21, 34, 29, 34. Old foliation in ink 'i-xxxiv' (ff. 1-32), including blanks after ff. 21, 29. 178 x 132mm (art. 5: 157 x 84mm). Three Italian hands: -(a) art. 1, ff. 2-4v; - (b) Ricci's hand, arts. 2-3, ff. 6v-29v; - (c) Serravalle's hand, art. 5, ff. 35-58. 18th-cent. binding of gilt-tooled brown calf skin, with original pastedowns of xylographic paper hidden underneath later pastedowns; for the 18th-cent. xylographic paper cfr. Quilici, Carte decorate nella legatoria del '700..., Roma. 1988, no. 5, pp. 62-63.