Abstracts

This study brings to light the figure of a “memorialist” who has largely gone unnoticed in scholarship on the Society of Jesus: Fr. Magino Solà (1605–1664), procurator and envoy of the Philippines, whose thought revolved around a Christian reason subordinated to moral principles and divine law. Far from acting as a mere executor of imperial directives, Solà transcended the conventional boundaries between the spiritual and the temporal, underscoring the need for a relational understanding of imperial power.

The reports and memorials he addressed to Governor Manrique de Lara and to King Philip IV (1621–1665), together with his role as an envoy in Macao, reveal a form of political thought oriented toward action that privileged diplomatic and missionary approaches, while highlighting his involvement in matters of governance from a distinctly Catholic and anti-Machiavellian perspective. Through the Informe of 1658, his figure emerges in full when examined from the triple frontier he inhabited: missionary in the Philippines, diplomat in Macao, and adviser to the highest levels of power.

In his work, faith and reason of state intertwine, revealing how the management of first-hand knowledge and the salvation of souls ultimately constituted two sides of the same strategy of imperial rule in the Pacific.

Fuelled partially by traditional assumptions about the nature of early modern literacy which have associated different writing styles with different economic classes, it is often assumed that anti-Kirishitan legislation and related materials were primarily read and understood by a small elite of government officials, buygyō, and village leaders. Nevertheless, the recycling and adaptation of these materials in popular literature suggest that their contents were culturally pervasive. Kōsatsu appeared not only as physical objects illustrated in travel books or as text reprinted in dedicated works on the topic, but also served as literary devices forming the basis of works like Nakazawa Dōni’s Dōni Sensei gokōsatsu dōwa 道二先生御高札道話 (1793). Temple membership certificates and other documents related to the Shūmon ninbetsu aratame were similarly repurposed with popular authors such as Jippensha Ikku reworking their contents for comedic effect on several occasions. This paper will explore some of the ways in which materials related to anti-Kirishitan legislation and Edo period religious investigations were reimagined in Edo period literature. In doing so it will seek to show that these materials were broadly understood by and formed a relevant cultural touchstone for popular audiences.

During the last decade of his brief life, the Neapolitan Jesuit Marcello Mastrilli became the protagonist of two distinct visual campaigns. The first was set in motion by his miraculous healing, attributed to the intercession of St Francis Xavier, which transformed Mastrilli into a vehement promoter of Xaverian devotion: a zeal he carried across India and the Philippines in the course of his journey to Japan, where he had resolved to serve as a missionary. The second unfolded in the wake of his martyrdom in Nagasaki, giving rise to a visual programme designed to support the cause for his beatification. Images produced on this latter occasion frequently incorporate the figure of Xavier alongside Mastrilli, creating a picture-within-a-picture effect that projects Xavier’s sanctified aura onto his would-be successor in glory, a kind of visual afterimage that rhetorically anchors Mastrilli’s holiness in an established devotional lineage.

This paper examines Mastrilli’s beatification process alongside the image-making practices it generated in Europe, asking to what extent this visual culture reflects broader Jesuit strategies for the making of saints in the early modern period.

There are very few historical records remaining about the relation between Japan and Latin America during this period. However, they are not entirely absent. Missionaries such as Cosme de Torres and Felipe de Jesus arrived in Japan from Mexico (Nova España). However, they are not entirely absent. Missionaries such as Cosme de Torres and Felipe de Jesus arrived in Japan from Mexico. Francisco Gale arrived in Macau from Acapulco, and on his return journey, he sailed near Japan and named one island “Armonicas”.

In the seventeenth century, Rodrigo de Vivero was shipwrecked in Japan, after his return to Japan, Sebastian Vizcaino was dispatched to Japan. The development of a lasting relationship between Japan and Latin America was being explored. However, these efforts became hopeless while Hasekura Tsunenaga was staying in Spain and Rome via Mexico. Even more interesting than these well-known facts are the historical documents concerning Japanese immigrants scattered throughout Latin America. This presentation will provide an overview of these events and then explore how we can understand them as a whole.

This paper aims to provide with an analyse of the Latin holdings of the Biblioteca Palafoxiana of Puebla de los Ángeles within the context of seventeenth-century transpacific circulation of texts and knowledge. Founded in 1646 by Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (1600-1659), bishop of Puebla and interim viceroy of New Spain, the library was conceived as a public institutional collection embedded in a broader educational and confessional project. Puebla’s strategic location along the Manila Galleon route, connecting Asia, New Spain, and the Iberian Peninsula, situates the Palafoxiana within global networks of book trade and intellectual exchange.

Focusing on Latin grammars, classical authors, and humanist texts –particularly grammatical works derived from the Introductiones latinae tradition of Antonio de Nebrija– this study examines the role of Latin learning as a cornerstone of clerical and civic education in colonial New Spain. The analysis connects the composition of the Palafoxian collection with Palafox’s educational reforms, including seminarial instruction and episcopal oversight of curricula. The presence and use of Latin texts are interpreted as markers of intellectual continuity between European humanism and colonial pedagogical practices, revealing Puebla as an active node in early modern global Latinity and the transoceanic circulation of normative educational models.

The Imperial College of Madrid, a royal academic institution organized by the Society of Jesus, was founded in the first half of the seventeenth century during the reign of Philip IV (1621–65). Although its name changed several times, it remained located in the center of Madrid. The college functioned as a key repository of epistemological knowledge from Jesuit mission fields worldwide and served as a nexus linking Jesuit institutions across different regions. Its scholars had access to extensive documentation transmitted from distant parts of the globe. Among them was the polymath Juan Eusebio Nieremberg (1595–1658). During the early years of the college, he had the opportunity to read martyrdom reports from the Paraguayan Province concerning Roque González de Santa Cruz, Alfonso Rodríguez Olmedo, and Juan de Castillo, the last of whom had studied with him in Huete. In 1631, Nieremberg published De arte voluntatis, libri sex, which included a panegyrical account of these martyrs based entirely on such reports. In the early eighteenth century, Jesuits and an indigenous collaborator in Paraguay translated Nieremberg’s De la diferencia entre lo temporal y eterno (1640) into Guaraní to instruct Christianized Guaraní communities. This presentation examines these transcontinental knowledge networks between the metropolis of the Spanish Empire and its peripheral colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Manila printing press, initially established by the Dominicans in 1604 as a tool to support their evangelization mission, began publishing numerous “relaciones de martirio” (accounts of martyrdom) starting in 1618. These gained fast popularity and were later summarized, reprinted in Europe and Mexico, and translated into several European languages.

This lecture presents a comprehensive overview of all documented accounts of martyrdom printed in Manila and explores the distinctive features—both structural and thematic—that characterized this unique literary subgenre. Furthermore, it highlights how these accounts played a fundamental role in the promotional efforts of religious orders, arguing that the Jesuit press emerged from the need to compete with the Dominicans in the printing of these very texts.

Of the five religious congregations in Manila, it was only the Dominicans who managed to publish texts intended for the Christianization of the Japanese in the early 17th century. (The Jesuits, based in Japan but proceeding from the Portuguese padroado, published tracts in Japan; two of these are now in the University of Santo Tomás Rare Book Section.) Four texts are known to have been issued from the Dominican press: VIRGEN S. MA-/RIANO TATTOQI ROSARIO […] (1622), VIRGEN S. MARIANO/ TATTOQ I ROSARIO-NO IARDIN/ […] (1623), LVZONNI VOITE ARU […] (1623), Vareraga võaruji IESV Christo S. Brigida, […] (1623), and Vocabulario de Iapon declarado primero en portvgves por los Padres de la Compañía de Jesús […] (1630). The first three were written in romanized Japanese, and printed in Binondo, a district across Manila from the Pasig River. The Vocabulario was published in the Colegio de Santo Thomas in Manila. For this paper, the first three booklets will be discussed within their cultural and historical context. Additionally, the 1623 Virgen S. Mariano is artistically significant for being one of the earliest Manila imprints to carry copperplate engravings, known locally as estampitas.

The “book that has come to us from the opposite side of the globe” alluded to in the title is a copy of the dictionary Racuyôxǔ (1598), which is kept at Leiden University. Its dedicatory inscription tells us that it reached its Dutch destination just a few years after being printed at the Jesuit mission press in Japan. How and when did such Jesuit prints as well as related materials from Japan travel all the way to Europe? What, if anything, do we know about the agents involved in their transfer and the respective historical circumstances?

Drawing on a recent publication (Osterkamp 2025) and subsequent research, this paper explores the routes of transmission of such materials, covering the period from approximately 1600 to 1800. While some cases do involve Jesuits, notably for instance Visitor Alessandro Valignano, sending newly printed books back to Europe, or also early Japanese converts like Thomas Araki visiting Europe and bringing books with them, such indications are lacking in a great many other cases. Instead, it seems that the Dutch East India Company played a pivotal role in this context, which helps to explain why the ownership of such materials initially had a strong geographical focus on the Netherlands.

Significant scholarly discourse has arisen in Japan concerning the printing press managed by the Jesuits in Japan and the movable type acquired from Europe. This discourse also includes the inquiry into whether, besides Macau, another printing press was transferred to Manila following the expulsion of missionaries in 1614. However, it is difficult to assert that these discussions are necessarily in alignment with international research trends, and conversely, debates abroad are not always sufficiently introduced in Japan. In response, this presentation seeks to re-evaluate the bibliographical research on the publications of Christian Mission Press which gained prominence in Japan approximately half a century ago. By referencing developments in the history of European typography, this study aims to elaborate on and revise these perspectives to address this gap. The objective is to reorganize mission press studies from a global perspective and establish a foundation for discussion that bridges the often-fragmented regional studies. Additionally, this presentation will focus on the various investigations conducted by Japanese researchers of South Asian or Nan-a culture during the same period as Father Laures’s research, spanning from the late 1930s to the end of World War II. Specifically, by examining the Christian-related documents brought to Japan before and after the occupation of the Philippines, this study seeks to illuminate the process of migration and preservation of the publications of the Christian mission press and clarify a part of its complex history of circulation.

This presentation examines how the memory of early modern Japanese Christian martyrdom was politically reappropriated by the papacy in the mid-nineteenth century through two landmark events: the canonization of the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan (1862) and the beatification of 205 Japanese martyrs (1867). The 1862 canonization, orchestrated by Pius IX amid the crisis of the Risorgimento, served as a spectacular assertion of papal authority at a moment when the Holy See had lost its temporal domains to Italian unification. The unprecedented scale of the ceremony, attended by nearly 300 prelates and funded through the newly established Peter’s Pence, transformed a religious rite into a political demonstration of the papacy’s enduring global influence. The visual program, including narrative paintings and widely circulated Épinal prints, strategically updated early modern martyrdom iconography to suit modern propaganda needs. Explicit references to contemporary persecutions in Vietnam linked past Japanese martyrdom to French colonial expansion in Asia. The 1867 beatification of 205 additional martyrs, following the promulgation of the Syllabus of Errors (1864) and coming just after the rediscovery of hidden Christians in Nagasaki, further reinforced the “martyred Japan” narrative. This study reveals how the papacy instrumentalized Japan’s martyrdom heritage at the intersection of ecclesiastical politics, visual culture, and nineteenth-century imperialism.

The Franciscan Felipe de Jesús (1572-1597) is considered the protomartyr of Mexico. He suffered martyrdom in Nagasaki on February 5, 1597, along with 25 other devout Christians, all of whom were beatified in 1627-1629 and canonized in 1862. The City of Mexico named him its patron saint (1629), with annual celebrations and festivities every February 5th. This work studies two plays, the first one still unpublished, dedicated to recreating the life and death of the saint on stage. The first one, by an unknown author, is titled 'El mejor blasón de México' and premiered in 1729 during the first centenary of his beatification. The second one is titled 'San Felipe de Jesús, protomártir mexicano', and was written by Mariano Osorno around 1850.

Juan de Jesús (†1706) was a Spanish Discalced Franciscan friar who spent nearly three decades in the Philippines, where he held several leadership positions and produced a remarkable yet almost entirely overlooked body of writings. His work consists of one major text and eight short opuscula, which address a wide range of missionary, linguistic, spiritual, and historical issues. His main work is the Arte de la lengua de Japón, a Spanish adaptation of Diego Collado’s Ars grammaticae Iaponicae linguae (Rome, 1632); more an independent work than a mere translation, this text reveals how friars reinterpreted and recontextualized materials produced in Europe, America, or Asia in order to integrate them into the Philippine missionary context. Despite their brevity, the short treatises address key aspects of the missionaries’ complex adaptation to the Philippine, and more broadly, Asian, context: comparisons between the capacities and dispositions of Filipinos, indigenous Americans, and Africans; reflections on female religious life and obedience within the colonial framework; the political tensions of Spanish administration in Manila; and the relationships among the different religious orders active in East Asia. The paper examines these writings as products of a “contact zone” in which languages, missionary rivalries, literary traditions, and political interests converged.

This talk will explore the role of friars as book handlers in the Spanish Pacific. Religious orders active in the Philippines during the early colonial period regularly sent procurators to Spain, New Spain, and Rome in diplomatic, political, and commercial missions meant to secure the resources necessary for their spiritual and temporal enterprises. Among these resources were writing supplies, books, and other printed materials. By looking at library inventories, procurator’s handbooks, and travel guides explicitly made for the orders’ ambassadors, this paper will discuss the religious, economic, and cultural aspects of this very specific form of trade, as well as the role of these agents in shaping colonial libraries, book culture, and reading practices in the Philippines during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In addition to narrative texts and catalogues, this talk will look at inquisitorial records from the Archivo General de la Nación in México, involving agents from different religious orders, and Franciscan correspondence held at the Biblioteca Nacional de México, among other sources.

Miguel Minoes (c.1591-1628) may be a relatively minor figure among Japanese Jesuits, but he was a school- and travelmate of the much more famous martyr and saint Petrus Kibe Kasui (1587-1639). Also like Kasui, Minoes authored several substantial Latin documents, most of which have never been examined in modern scholarly literature. Though so far overlooked, they nonetheless are precious sources conveying the authentic voice of a Japanese seminarian and later priest who studied in Europe and was acutely aware of his non-Western identity as well as the enormous challenges confronting both the Catholic church and the Jesuit order in the East. 

 The first presentation of this panel sketches the chance discovery of an anonymous and undated document in ARSI, which upon closer inspection appears to be Minoes’ personal testimony made in Rome sometime in the early to mid 1620s. The document reveals previously unknown details of the experiences of Japanese seminarians in Macao around 1615, as well as of the trip that Minoes and Kasui made through India on their way to Europe; one interesting detail of this trip is a previously unknown background story to the suicidal Jesuit expeditionary group that left the Philippines for Japan in 1642.

The “Great Expulsion” of 1614 under the Tokugawa Shogunate led to the deportation of sixty-five Jesuits to Macau, together with fifty-three Japanese dōjuku, including Pedro Kibe and Miguel Minoes. In the immediate aftermath, seminary education was instituted in Macau for these Jesuit candidates. A 1616 memorial contains the phrase “Quando o Seminario se tornar para Japão,” suggesting that this initiative was conceived as a provisional measure with the expectation of the Seminary’s eventual restoration in Japan. Yet Valentim Carvalho, Provincial of the Japan Province, took an unsympathetic stance toward these candidates, which effectively drove them to pursue alternative avenues to fulfill their vocation. Some continued their studies in Manila under the Mendicant Orders, while others—namely, Kibe, Minoes, and Mancio Konishi—set out for Rome for ordination. From around 1620, the Macau seminary remained closed for a short period. Building on this background, the presentation revisits the testimonies of senior members of the Province regarding the education and admission of Japanese seminarians, clarifying the context underlying the urgent appeals in Minoes’s letters. The presentation further focuses on his proposal to establish a College in Cochinchina and examines the selection of this region as a suitable site within the Province’s Southeast Asian enterprises. This proposal, too, can be regarded as part of sustained efforts, grounded in a vocation to rescue the persecuted Christians of their homeland.

This paper examines the Latin letters of Miguel Minoes from the perspective of “Eastern Latin Literature,” a field that explores Latin texts related to Asia as a site of East-West cultural exchange. Such materials have often been overlooked between the disciplines of Classics and history, yet they provide valuable insight into the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters in the early modern period.

Focusing on three letters by Minoes, this study analyzes both their content and style. These letters describe various aspects of his experience, such as his encounter with the Jesuit Antonio Rubino, later martyred in Japan, his appeals to European superiors concerning Japan and the Japanese, and his frustrations regarding priestly ordination. Particular attention is paid to Minoes’ use of relatively plain Latin, rather than humanistic Latin, as well as to his acknowledgement of his own limitations in Latin, while emphasizing the superior Latinity of other Japanese Christians.

In addition, this paper situates Minoes’ perspective alongside those of other Japanese figures such as Pedro Kibe and Thomas Araki, highlighting their shared concern with presenting Japanese customs to European readers and seeking their understanding.

In Christian texts written in Japanese during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many Christian terms were expressed using loanwords. Because many Jesuit missionaries engaged in the mission to Japan were native speakers of Portuguese, most of these terms were borrowed from Portuguese, although some were also derived from Latin and Spanish. In Jesuit printed works, Portuguese-derived loanwords were generally employed, even when the source text does not appear to have been Portuguese. In texts printed in Roman letters, forms such as confissão are attested, while in texts printed in Japanese script, phonographic renderings such as こんひさん (konhisan) were used.

By contrast, printed works of the Dominican Order are extant only in Roman letters and use Spanish-derived loanwords, such as confesión. In manuscripts written in Japanese script and attributed to Japanese Christians, Portuguese-derived loanwords were generally employed; however, texts involving Dominican or Franciscan missionaries include some Spanish-derived vocabulary, for example こんへしよん (konheshiyon), although such usage is limited. These patterns reflect not only the linguistic backgrounds of the missionaries but also differences in translation practices among missionary orders.

From a perspective of the study of history, the existence of the Jesuit Mission Press itself and whether the Kirishitans actually accepted its contents and were able to practice their faith based on it must be considered as separate research topics. This presentation empirically investigates whether the doctrinal contents described in the Jesuit Mission Press were the underlying principle behind the actions of Kirishitans who participated in the Shimabara-Amakusa Rebellion (1637-1638) against the Tokugawa Shogunate authorities. Particularly, by focusing on the elusive Manila edition of Spiritual Xuguio that had been said to be extinguished during WWII, held now in the Kirishitan Bunko Library at Sophia University in Tokyo, and on a letter written by a young man of the leadership class of the Kirishitan rebels, Watanabe Satarō Miguel, possessed in the Eisei Bunko Library in Kumamoto, both as central sources, this presentation secondly demonstrates that the eschatology and cult of saints formed part of the ideological background of the Kirishitan rebellion, and delves into the historical relationship between the Kirishitan rebels and various religious orders such as the Society of Jesus, as well as offering a deeper understanding of Christian faith amongst Kirishitans themselves at the end of the “Christian Century in Japan.”

In 1583, the Italian Jesuit painter Giovanni Cola arrived in Japan and led the Seminário dos Pintores (Seminary of Painters) in Nagasaki and Amakusa. Until his 1614 exile to Macau, Cola trained Japanese Christian artists who utilized Western techniques based on European engravings—similar to missionary practices in New Spain—while incorporating distinct Japanese elements. Evidence suggests that a “Virgin of the Rosary” currently held at the San Agustin Museum in Manila can be attributed to one of Cola’s disciples. Historical documents further confirm that at least one Cola’s student was present in Manila during the early 17th century. While originally a Dominican icon, the “Virgin of the Rosary” became a symbol of victory over “paganism” and “heresy” following the Battle of Lepanto. Furthermore, the architectural depictions in the Martyrdom of Japanese Saints (originally sent from Japan to Rome via Manila) share notable similarities with a View of Manila depicted on a chest in Puebla, Mexico. Finally, this study identifies the “Eucharistic Trinity”—depicting the Trinity as three identical figures of Christ—among Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christian) iconography. Although banned in Spain, this motif persisted in Mexico and the Philippines. Its presence in Japan suggests that these unique transpacific iconographic circuits reached Japan.

I want to show that, though one may think there was no much communication between Japan and the Americas, the remaining documents show that there was a fluent and rich exchange of information and ideas. I will present contemporary documents to show how this communication took place. As an example, I take the Martyrs of Japan, who were known early not only in Europe, but also in the American Continent. The information is kept in written documents as in art with their respective cultural background. Often, we find that this information is used to transmit Christian values and example to the other side.