BOUND FOR THE KING OF ITALY
RICCI, Giovanni, and Ercolano PORTA.
Storia della missione francescana e del Vicariato Apostolico del Hunan meridionale dalle sue origini ai giorni nostri.
Bologna, Stabilimenti tipografici riuniti, 1925.
8vo, pp. 222; frontispiece portrait of Mons. Gian Pellegrino Mondaini, profusely illustrated with photographic reproductions; a few minor stains within; else a very good copy, bound in dark purple roan for presentation to Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, presentation from Mondaini lettered in gilt to front board; slightly worn at edges; shelfmark label of the Royal Library to spine.
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Storia della missione francescana e del Vicariato Apostolico del Hunan meridionale dalle sue origini ai giorni nostri.
First and only edition of this history of the Franciscan Mission in Southern Hunan, an important copy bound for presentation by the Vicar Apostolic of Southern Hunan to King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.
Tracing the mission’s history from seventeenth-century origins through to 1924, the account pays particular attention to the persecution of Christians during the Boxer Rebellion and the following years of restoration and progress for the mission. The appendix comprises letters, documents, and statistics on the state of the mission and the spread of Christianity in the region, as well as curious anecdotes such as the mysterious ‘green fire’ that the missionaries were accused of using against young children and pregnant women, and the clashes with the American Adventists. Some of the photographs, likely to have been taken by the missionaries themselves, show churches and religious buildings before and after the uprising.
Victor Emmanuel III had acceded to the throne in July 1900, only a month after the Eight-Nation Alliance had been raised in response to the Boxers. Some 2,500 Italian troops were among the alliance’s forces. Victor Emmanuel would later establish the Medaglia commemorativa della Campagna in Cina for veterans of the campaign.
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