Caminho dos frades menores para a vida eterna.

Lisbon, Na Officina de Miguel Deslandes, 1689.. FIRST EDITION. 4°, contemporary stiff vellum, fore-edge cover extensions, spine with vertical title in manuscript, textblock edges rouged. Small woodcut floral vignette on title-page. Woodcut initials. Woodcut headpiece on recto of second preliminary leaf; typographical headpiece on recto of following leaf. Large woodcut tailpiece on p. 386. Very small blank piece torn away in upper corner of title-page; neat repairs to upper blank margins of a few leaves; occasional slight marginal stains. In very good to fine condition. Remains of small paper tag (nineteenth-century?) near foot of spine. (4 ll.), 389 [i.e., 387] pp. Page 387 wrongly numbered 389. *** FIRST EDITION of this tribute to the Franciscan order. A second edition appeared at Coimbra, 1721 (with another issue in 1722).In the course of his treatise the author frequently refers to specific situations in the "Estado da Índia" (i.e., all areas of Portuguese influence in East Africa and Asia), missionary activities, and monks who worked primarily in the East, many of whom were known to the author personally. He also discusses who can become a novice of the order - descendants of Jews, Moors and heretics are excluded, but there is mention of special conditions existing in India, and of exceptions that can be made there for those with some native ancestry (pp. 168-78). According to Porbase, there is a variant issue, in which the final license is dated 18 May 1689. In our copy, there is indeed a license of this date on the verso of the final preliminary leaf, followed by:Visto estar conforme com seu Original, póde correr. Lisboa 24 Janeiro de 1690.Soares. Pimenta. Noronha. Castro. Foyos. Azevedo.Pode correr. Lisboa 27 de Janeiro de 1690.Serraõ.Tayxaõ este Livro em trezentos reis. Lisboa 21. de Janeiro de 1690.Lamprea. Ribeiro.The Franciscan Fr. Jacinto de Deus, born in Macao in 1612, worked in the province of Madre de Deus in Goa where he was provincial and a deputy of the Inquisition. He died in Goa in 1681.*** Arouca D16. Innocêncio III, 238: without collation. Barbosa Machado II, 463. Pinto de Mattos (1970) p. 243. Nepomuceno 601. Cf. Gomes, Bibliografia macaense 491 (citing only the second edition, 1722). Not in Xavier da Cunha, Impressões Deslandesianas. Not in the Cordiers, Gonçalves, Scholberg, Palha, HSA, or Ticknor Catalogue. Porbase locates three copies, two of which are a variant issue, all in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (one is described as having "F. perfuradas" with binding in "mau estado"). Jisc locates a copy of the 1722 edition only, at British Library. No edition located in Hollis or Orbis. Not located in NUC.