Botero, Giovanni

4 parts in one volume, 4to (185 x 140mm.), printer's devices, woodcuts throughout, 4 engraved maps, later half vellum over marbled boards, some damp stains, light browning, slight crack to upper board

Western Travellers in China 12

"Venetian edition of this immensely popular work, which was reprinted many times (the first two volumes originally appeared at Rome in 1591-92). The Italian Giovanni Botero (1544-1617), Jesuit and political theorist, was tutor and adviser at the Turin court of Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy... Botero's knowledge of China, which he had previously derived exclusively from Barros, Mendoza, and the Jesuit letterbooks, becomes more realistic and critical in the Relazioni, possibly because of the new information and perspective which he derived from the Jesuits" (Western Travellers in China).