[Jesuit] Vincentiis, Gherardo de Documenti e Titoli sul Privato Fondatore dell'attuale Istituto (antico "Collegio dei Cinesi" in Napoli) Matteo Ripa sulle Missioni in Cina nel Secolo XVIII. Naples Gennaro Salvati 1904
First edition. 4to (30.5 x 23 cm), pp.[iv], 14, 662, numerous folding facsimile documents, some in Chinese. R. Istituto Orientale in Napoli. One hundred copies printed; this copy unnumbered. A very good copy bound in modern half calf, marbled boards. With cancelled stamps of SOAS to title verso and final page.
COPAC records copies at the British Library, Durham, and SOAS.

A selection of manuscript letters and documents from the archives of the Oriental Institute of Naples, founded as the College of the Chinese by Matteo Ripa (1682-1746) in 1732. Vincentiis provides abundant critical notes, transcriptions, and facscimile plates of the original manuscripts. The manuscripts cover Ripa's missionary and artistic work in China at the court of the Kangxi Emperor, the "Chinese rites" controversy between 1700 and 1750, and the foundation of the College at Naples and its early history.