[COMPANHIA DE JESUS].- COPIA DE | ALGVNAS CARTAS | que los padres y hermanos de la | compañia de IESVS, que andan en la | India, y otras partes orientales, escri | uieron a los de la misma compa- | ñia de Portugal. | [gravura xilografica] | Desde el año .M.D.LVII. hasta el de .LXI. | Trasladadas de Portugues en Castellano.- ¶ Impressas en Barcelona: por Claude Bornat, Año de 1562.- 13 [i. é, 131] f.; 15 cm.- E. A collection of letters from Jesuit missionaries from the East addressed “a los de la misma compañia de Portugal” with the aim of awakening new missionary vocations in the Ignatian confreres. Reprint, greatly enlarged, of the original edition, also in Castilian, published in Coimbra, by João Álvares, in December 1555, just three years (and 10 days) after the death of St. Francis Xavier. The edition was remarkably successful, counting at least 12 re-editions in Portugal by the end of the 16th century. It contains 24 letters written between 1557 and 1561, from Goa, Daman, Vasai, Cochin, Malacca and Mozambique, but also from Japan (4 letters), not only to Portugal, but also to Goa, Ethiopia and Mozambique. Six letters from Fr. Luís Fróis, one of the great names of the apostolate of the East, but also of other missionaries such as Cosme de Torres, Gaspar Vilela, Baltazar Dias, Gonçalo Rodrigues, Luís de Gouveia, etc. On the last page there is a colophon surmounted by a xilography engraving with the imprint of the printer Claude Bornat. Very clean copy, slightly trimmed, covered in excellent binding, entirely in Jansenist morocco, with decoration on the squares, signed “Brugalla 1953”, Emilio Brugalla (1901-1987) considered the best Spanish bookbinder of his generation. Provenance: Silva’s / Pedro de Azevedo auction, April 2001, lot 320 (same copy). Palau, 61090, for the Coimbra edition of 1562, with a small reference to a copy in the British Museum). BNP RES 263//2 P.