[Orientalisme] Charles Chapia - Les martyrs du Japon - 1862

CHAPIA, M. [CHARLES, ABBÉ, CURÉ DE VITTEL].
The Martyrs of Japan, by M. Chapia, Curé of Vittel, Member of the Historical Institute, etc.; director of the Third Order; Followed by an Appendix on the canonizations... Paris: Librairie de Mme Veuve Poussielgue-Rusand, 1862.

In-8. Full calf bound in period style, smooth spine decorated with graceful gilt tools and central lozenges, title piece in bright red morocco.

Original edition of a hagiographic and historical work written by Abbé Charles Chapia, curé of Vittel (misprint Vitel on the title). This work traces the dramatic sacrifice of the first 26 martyrs of Japan (the Jesuit and Spanish Franciscan Fathers and the Japanese laypeople, including the young Saint Paul Miki and the little Saint Louis Ibarchi) crucified at Nagasaki in 1597 by order of Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The work includes a detailed documentary appendix on the history and rules of canonizations in the Catholic Church, published precisely in the same year as the major diplomatic and religious event of Pius IX’s pontificate.

An era-binding binding in very good condition, sound leather, gilding on the spine with remarkable freshness and a bright red title piece. Interior complete with the regular foxing of 19th-century edition paper. Fine copy of this publication linked to the 19th-century religious orientalisme.

This 1862 publication is not merely a devotional book: it is situated at the heart of Vatican policy under Pope Pius IX. On 8 June 1862 (Pentecost), Pius IX presided in St. Peter’s, Rome, over the grand canonization of the 26 martyrs of Japan.
For the occasion, the Pope gathered in Rome more than 260 bishops and 4,000 priests from around the world. It was, at the time, the largest assembly of the Catholic hierarchy observed in the holy city since the Council of Trent in the 16th century!

In the midst of Italian unification (Risorgimento), while the Vatican faced the threat of losing its Papal States, Pius IX used the international canonization of these martyrs from the Far East to publicly demonstrate spiritual and political strength against Garibaldi’s and Napoleon III’s troops. This book by Abbé Chapia was printed in Paris, on the eve of the Roman ceremonies, to serve as the French pilgrims’ reference book.