First edition. A rare work, no copy has appeared for sale in over 50 years at auction, which includes relevant information of the Jesuit missionary activities in the West and mainly East Indies; the Firmamento is part of a series of works by the Jesuit scholar and historian of the Order, Juan Eusebio Nieremberg.
The work comprises a series of biographies of important Jesuit missionaries, with their deeds and relevant accomplishments during their evangelization. The complete set of biographies is virtually impossible to obtain. “This work having been published at different periods during the space of almost a century, complete sets are excessively rate. The interest of the work, excluding some “jesuitical chaff,” is not inferior to its rarity, as it contains accounts of many early voyages to the Indias, not elsewhere to be found.” (Sabin, on the Vidas exemplares)
Provenance: contemporary ownership inscription to title page “Soi de los descalzos Trinitarios de Herbas(?)”, and “Soi de los Descalcos Trinitarios de Herbas”, evidently a volume preserved in the same library for a considerable time.
Sabin, 55270.
