Giuseppe Catiglione, a Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors by Beurdeley, Cecile and Michel

Rutland, VT; [June, 1972]: Charles E. Tuttle Co. First Edition. Quarto. 204pp., translated by Michael Bullock, illustrated in black and white, along with several tipped in color plates. This book is a catalogue raisonne of the work of Castiglione as well as an account of the meeting of two contrasted techniques of painting and theories of art. It also offers a fascinating picture of daily life and the great ceremonial occasions at the Court of the Emperors, of the confrontation of two great civilisations, of the intellectual and philosophical disputes that arose from the encounter, of the hardships endured by the missionaries, and of the rivalries between the European powers in the mission field. A fine bright copy bound in yellow cloth, spine lettering brown, in near fine pictorial dust jacket with just a bit of toning along upper edge, housed within publisher's plain card slipcase.