Relation des missions et des voyages des évêques, vicaire apostoliques...

Octavo, (8) ff., 389 pp., (1) p., title vignette. Upper right corner of title page restored. Red morocco, triple gilt fillet border on covers, spine richly gilt, gilt edges over marbling, marbled endpapers.
Contemporary morocco binding.

186 x 120 mm.

Fermanel de Favery, Luc (1632-1688). Pallu, François (Tours, 1626 – Kiang-Sou 1684). Account of the missions and travels of the bishops, apostolic vicars, and their clergy in the years 1672, 1673, 1674 & 1675. Paris, Charles Angot, 1680.

Important first edition bringing together four accounts of religious missionaries from the years 1672-1675, relating to Cochinchina, Tonkin, China, Cambodia and Champa, the Indies, and the Kingdom of Siam.
Cordier, bibl. Sinica, p. 827; Chadenat, I, 162, 1707, 3842.

When Luc Fermanel de Favery entered as a cleric at the Saint-Sulpice seminary on October 7, 1655, he held the benefice of Saint-Sauveur d’Etretat. He left Saint-Sulpice on October 15, 1658, and immediately dedicated himself to the work of the M.-E. On June 14, 1660, he was chosen as procurator by Msgr Lambert de La Motte; on November 3, 1661, December 21 of the same year, and February 1, 1670, by Msgr Pallu. He was appointed director of the M.-E. Seminary on March 10, 1664, and procurator of the house on June 11 of the same year, then named superior on January 12, 1674, and re-elected in 1677. In 1675, he submitted a request to the Assembly of the Clergy of France, reporting on the good state of the missions entrusted to apostolic vicars, the solemn reception given by the King of Siam to Pallu and Lambert de la Motte upon the presentation of letters from Clement IX and Louis XIV. This request obtained a subsidy of 4,000 francs for the missions. During his role as superior, in 1674 and in 1680, Relations of the missions written by the apostolic vicars and missionaries were published.

In 1669, the Pope approved the “Monita ad Missionarios” and had them printed by the Propaganda. He granted exceptional powers to the bishops, but also sent a letter and gifts to the King of Siam Phrai Naï. Once support from Rome was received, François Pallu returned to France,
to the directors of the Paris Foreign Missions, who wanted to disavow what they saw as excesses on the part of Pierre Lambert de la Motte. They urged François Pallu to disavow his congregation’s recommendations, which he did before leaving again for Asia, taking a ship from Brittany.

After spending a few weeks in Madagascar, François Pallu and the missionaries left again and arrived at Surat.

Upon his arrival in the Kingdom of Siam, François Pallu met Pierre Lambert de la Motte, who had managed to structure and organize the Christian community, though without making conversions: a hospital had been built, relations established with the King of Siam, and also the foundation of a seminary in Ayutthaya, with the presence of seminarians.

Although François Pallu had been instructed to depart quickly for the Far East, he decided to go to Rome. He arrived there on June 3.

During this period, he wrote many letters to the superiors of the Paris Foreign Missions to resolve misunderstandings and explain the challenges facing the missions in Asia. He also wrote advice for voyages to Asia, as well as guidance for the formation of seminarians.

Precious and very rare copy, with wide margins, preserved in its contemporary Parisian red morocco binding.