Imagem da virtude em o noviciado da Companhia de Jesus no Real Collegio de Jesus de Coimbra, na qual se contem as vidas, e virtudes de muytos religiozos, que nesta santa caza foraõ noviços. ... Pelo P. Antonio Franco da Companhia de Jesus.

[18]+886 pages with title in red and black, woodcut head-pieces and initials and index. Folio (11 3/4" x 8") bound in contemporary calf, spine in gilt. Earliest OCLC copy found was 1719.

Antonio Franco's work, as a history of the Society in that era, was typical among others in extolling those fellow Jesuits who died as martyrs during, or on their way to, missions in Brazil. Perhaps viewed now as a glorified euro-centric perspective, the work nonetheless features in the important Bibliographia Brasiliana by Borba de Moraes [1.318]. It also deals with the formation structure of the novitiate of the Jesuit school at Évora (Portugal), which became a model for many other Schools in Portugal, Brazil and island territories.

Father António Franco reveals a historical and critical consciousness at a time when hagiography (literary genre in which include his edifying lives) begins to assert itself as a critical science. The study also proposes a reading of Imagem da virtude

In the context of spiritual pedagogy of the Society that not only values an edifying view of history and historiography, but also the spiritual principle of imitatio sanctorum

Condition:

A few pages with light damp-staining lower fore-edge corner, a few very small worm holes to title (no text loss), endpapers and pastedowns, spine gilt, rubbed, leather scuffed else very good.