Ars Grammaticae Iaponicae linguae. In gratiam et adiutorium eorum, qui praedicandi Evangelii causa ad Iaponiae Regnum se voluerint conferre
Rome: typis & impensis Sacr. Congr. de Prop. Fide [Propaganda Fide], 1632.
Price: $35,000.00
Quarto: 20.8 x 15.8 cm. 75 pp. Collation: A-I4, K2
FIRST EDITION.
An attractive, unsophisticated copy in its original limp vellum binding (coming loose). Text lightly toned, small damp-stains in lower margin, occ. light marginal foxing. Paste-downs tattered. With a small woodcut on the title page. Housed in a folding cloth chemise, within a custom morocco case. Extremely rare. 4 copies in North America (Hawaii, Harvard, Princeton, BYU).
First edition of the first Japanese grammar printed in Europe. Written by the Dominican missionary Diego Collado, the book is the first of the author’s three books on the Japanese language, all printed in 1632. It was followed by his Japanese dictionary and a manual on the sacrament of Confession. Collado worked as a missionary in Japan for three years (1619-1622) and in the Philippines for fourteen (1611-1619 and 1635-1641). He was a vigorous advocate for the Dominican missions in Asia and his books, tools to assist his fellow missionaries in their efforts to evangelize the Japanese people, were a key component of his grand plan of a much more robust Dominican presence in Japan. The book would remain an important reference for learning Japanese into the 19th c.
Collado's works were among the first linguistic books commissioned by the Polyglot Press of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide). Founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, Propaganda Fide established its Polyglot Press in 1626 to promote global evangelization and rival Protestant missionary presses. In 1626, Collado petitioned Propaganda Fide to create a Dominican Congregation for Asian missions but the Dominican Master rejected his plan. His proposal was finally approved by the Dominicans in 1630, when a new Master was elected, and by Propaganda Fide in 1633. “The goals of Diego Collado and Propaganda Fide were almost perfectly aligned. Collado thought of preparing suitable textbooks for his planned Congregation (in Asia), while Propaganda Fide strove to become the central institution of all missionary activity.” (Odstrčilík 124)
“The Congregation forced Collado to make one important change in his original publication plan. The grammar was first composed in Spanish, as surviving manuscripts testify, and it was then translated into Latin (thus becoming the first Latin grammar of Japanese)… However, he was forced by his superiors to add Latin lemmas, and he asks the reader to place more trust in the Spanish explanations than in the Latin ones . . . By persuading Collado to write these books in Latin, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith made them accessible to a broader audience than just the Iberian one, and thus helped promote its own cause of opening missionary activity to all.”(Odstrčilík 124-132)
Transcribing and transliterating Japanese presented European printers with a variety of technical difficulties: “Often forgotten is the fact that nobody published books on the Japanese language in Europe before this. Even though Collado’s books were printed using the Latin alphabet instead of Chinese signs and Japanese scripts, it was still a great challenge. This alone can explain difficulties with typesetting and typographical errors and inconsistencies. Diego Collado himself states in his ‘Dictionarium’: ‘I beg you, do not wonder when you see a number of mistakes, because the Japanese language is so unknown to European typesetters’.
Collado was born about 1587 at Miajadas, Spain, he entered the Dominican order and was ordained in 1610. He arrived in the Philippines in 1611 and served there until he was sent to Japan in 1622. Because of the edicts expelling missionaries and banning Christianity, Collado found that all of the Dominicans in Japan were either dead or in jail, except for three. As a result of the persecutions he spent his first year in hiding and learning the Japanese language. In 1622 Collado orchestrated a failed attempt to rescue Luis Flores, a Dominican who was imprisoned and being tortured by the Japanese to renounce his faith. In 1622 Collado was recalled to Europe, where he served as procurator for his province in Rome and Madrid. He continued to advocate for expanding the Dominican mission in Asia, and composed his works on the Japanese language in 1631-1632 in hopes of attracting and assisting new missionaries. Collado returned to the Philippines in 1635 and served the mission for six years. He was recalled to Spain in 1641, and on his return voyage his boat was shipwrecked and he drowned.
Palau 57563; Cordier, BJ, 325; Laures, Kirishitan Bunko Database, JL-1632-KB55-54-43. Literature: Between Languages, Genres and Cultures: Diego Collado’s Linguistic Works”, Jan Odstrčilík (2020); “Propaganda Fide Press Printing Blocks, 1626-1850” UNC-Chapel Hill