1. BODLEIAN LIBRARY.

Sanctos no Gosagueo no Uchinukigaki, Volume One. Printed by permission of the Superiors at the College of the Society of Jesus at Katsusa, in the county of Takaku, province of Hizen, A.D. 1591. 8vo.

294 pages, in addition to a list of contents (2 pages), errata (4 pages), and the last leaf, on the reverse of which is "Continuation in Volume the Second." Title-page of Volume 2: Sanctos no Gosagueo no Uchinukigaki, printed at the College of the Society of Jesus in the province of Hizen, district of Takaku, Kazusa, by permission of the Superiors, 1591.

340 pages, in addition to a list of contents (4 pages), errata (5 pages), and a glossary of difficult words (72 pages). This is a dictionary of difficult words with explanations in Japanese, and Portuguese equivalents or explanations.

In the center of the title-page of each volume is a small copper engraving representing St. Peter surrounded by other saints. This plate, as well as the others used for several subsequent publications, was almost certainly engraved in Japan by a native artist who received his training in one of the Jesuit seminaries. In the Lettera Annua del Giapone dal Marzo del 1593, sino al Marzo del 94 original: "Annual Letter of Japan from March 1593 to March 1594.", the writer says that some of the pupils had made great progress in painting—both in distemper and in oils—and in engraving on copper, copying the paintings and engravings that had been brought from Rome by the ambassadors. It is true that the pictures here spoken of were for hanging up in houses as objects of devotion, and that no special mention is made of such unimportant pieces of work as small plates for title-pages, but careful inspection of the prints leads to the conclusion that they are the work of natives.

Cotton (Typographical Gazetteer, p. 276) has the following note: "Tacacum, or Tacaxuctium, Takagus, a town of Japan, situated in the island of Niphon, which was one of the settlements occupied by the Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century. In the Bodleian Library (marked 8°. Z. 21. Th. Seld.) is a small volume, in Roman type but Japanese language, and on silk paper, which was printed here by the Jesuits of the College of Cazzusa, a settlement three miles distant from the town of Arima. This work is in two parts, and appears to contain lives of the apostles and of some saints, having at the end a short Japanese..."

* Milan, 1597, pp. 59 and 60.
† "Some of them are making no less progress in painting, as well as in engraving on copper for prints, because eight of them are practicing various paintings in distemper and others in oil, and five are engaged in engraving plates... Those who engrave in copper are doing no less in their office, because they are already engraving very naturally the images that come from Rome, of which many have been printed with great pleasure and satisfaction of the Christians."