— Self Through the Other Production, Circulation and Reception in Italy Of
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SELF THROUGH THE OTHER e-ISSN 2610-9425 Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies 9 ISSN 2610-8992 Arts and Literature 3 — Self Through the Other Production, Circulation FAVI and Reception in Italy of Sixteenth-Century Printed Sources on Japan Sonia Favi Edizioni Ca’Foscari Self Through the Other Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies Arts and Literature Collana diretta da | A series directed by Paolo Calvetti, Massimo Raveri Bonaventura Ruperti, Guido Samarani 9 | 3 Edizioni Ca’Foscari Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies Arts and Literature General scientific editors History and Society sub-series: Guido Samarani (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Arts and Literature sub-series: Bonaventura Ruperti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Linguistics and Language Education sub-series: Paolo Calvetti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia Religion and Thought sub-series: Massimo Raveri (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia)) Scientific committee History and Society sub-series: Kimio Ito¯ (Kyoto University, Japan) Toshio Miyake (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Andrea Revelant (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Steffi Richter (Universität Leipzig, Deutschland) Sven Saaler (Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan) Arts and Literature sub-series: Tomoko Aoyama (The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia) Jaqueline Berndt (Kyoto Seika University, Japan) Luisa Bienati (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Caterina Mazza (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Carolina Negri (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Andreas Regelsberger (Universität Trier, Deutschland) Silvia Vesco (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Pierantonio Zanotti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Linguistics and Language Education sub-series: Patrick Heinrich (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Hideo Hosokawa (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan) Kikuo Maekawa (National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tokyo, Japan) Marcella Mariotti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Barbara Pizziconi (SOAS, University of London, UK) Aldo Tollini (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Religion and Thought sub-series: Giovanni Bulian (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Andrea De Antoni (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan) Federico Marcon (Princeton University, USA) Tatsuma Padoan (University College Cork, Ireland) Executive coordinator Marcella Mariotti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Head office Dipartimento di Studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa Mediterranea Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Palazzo Vendramin dei Carmini Dorsoduro 3462 30123 Venezia e-ISSN 2610-9425 ISSN 2610-8992 URL http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/collane/ca-foscari-japanese-studies/ Self Through the Other Production, Circulation and Reception in Italy of Sixteenth-Century Printed Sources on Japan Sonia Favi Venezia Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing 2018 Self Through the Other. Production, Circulation and Reception in Italy of Sixteenth-Century Printed Sources on Japan Sonia Favi © 2018 Sonia Favi per il testo | for the text © 2018 Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing per la presente edizione | for this edition Qualunque parte di questa pubblicazione può essere riprodotta, memorizzata in un sistema di recupero dati o trasmessa in qualsiasi forma o con qualsiasi mezzo, elettronico o meccanico, senza autorizzazione, a condizione che se ne citi la fonte. Any part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission provided that the source is fully credited. Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Dorsoduro 3246, 30123 Venezia http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/ [email protected] 1st edition September 2018 ISBN 978-88-6969-237-6 [ebook] Certificazione scientifica delle Opere pubblicate da Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing: tutti i saggi pubblicati hanno ottenuto il parere favorevole da parte di valutatori esperti della materia, attraverso un processo di revisione anonima sotto la responsabilità del Comitato scientifico della collana. La valutazione è stata condotta in aderenza ai criteri scientifici ed editoriali di Edizioni Ca’ Foscari. Scientific certification of the works published by Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing: all essays published in this volume have received a favourable opinion by subject-matter experts, through an anonymous peer review process under the responsibility of the Scientific Committee of the series. The evaluations were conducted in adherence to the scientific and editorial criteria established by Edizioni Ca’ Foscari. Self Through the Other. Production, Circulation and Reception in Italy of Sixteenth-Century Prin- ted Sources on Japan / Sonia Favi — 1. ed. — Venezia : Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing, 2018. — 158 p.; 23 cm. — (Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies; 9, 3). URL http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-237-6/ DOI 10.30687/978-88-6969-237-6 Self Through the Other Production, Circulation and Reception in Italy of Sixteenth-Century Printed Sources on Japan Sonia Favi Abstract The first ‘direct’ encounter between Europe and Japan in the second half of the sixteenth century generated a huge amount of written sources, in European languages, on Japan. This works explores the imaginary that they built, focusing on the interplay between ‘factuality’ and ‘myth’ and on the way their depiction of ‘Japan’ reflected European self-images and desires. The work, moreover, esti- mates the effective impact of this imaginary in Europe, using the Italian editorial world as a case study, and analysing the cultural and economic processes that led to circulation, or, in some cases, to the lack of circulation of the sources in published form. Italian publishing centres dominated the European book market up to the end of the sixteenth Century. Venice, in particular, was, ever since the beginning of the fifteenth century, a main centre for the diffusion of informa- tion about international events. Above all in the case of Jesuit sources, many editio princeps were Italian and provided the basis for subsequent translations in Northern European languages. Firstly, the work will provide an introductory framework to my discussion on sixteenth-century materials, by focusing on the ‘mythical’ imaginary on Asia and Japan developed through European sources before the so-called era of ‘Great discoveries’. It will then discuss how the early Portuguese explorations in the Atlantic Ocean and Greater China Seas area came to affect the perception and representation of Asia in the sixteenth century, and focus, particularly, on the production of lay sources on Japan and on their (lack of) distribution in the Italian market. Lastly, it will focus on the sources related to the Christian missions in Japan, and particularly on the materials on Japan resulting from the system of correspondence adopted by the Jesuit order. Keywords Japan. Christianity. Sixteenth century. Representation. Book history. Self Through the Other Production, Circulation and Reception in Italy of Sixteenth-Century Printed Sources on Japan Sonia Favi Acknowledgments I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who have, in one way or another, helped me to bring this book to completion. I would like to thank my advisor Prof. Aldo Tollini for his guidance during the writing of the PhD dissertation upon which this book is based. I would also like to thank Prof. Bonaventura Ruperti, for his continuous support, and Prof. Rosa Caroli, for her precious advice throughout my master and PhD years. My thanks go to Patrizia Bravetti, Orfea Granzotto and all the staff at Marciana National Library, for their support and assistance in my research. I would also like to thank Dr. Wei Jiang and Dr. Yoshida Shin for connecting me to a wider network of researchers on Christianity in Japan. I am grateful to my colleagues from Ca’ Foscari University for their moral and material support. A special thank-you goes to Dr. Caterina Mazza, Dr. Daniela Moro and Dr. Giuseppe Pappalardo, for their friendship, advice and help. Self Through the Other Production, Circulation and Reception in Italy of Sixteenth-Century Printed Sources on Japan Sonia Favi Table of contents 0 Introduction 11 1 From Myth to Geography 17 1.1 ‘Myth’ and ‘Reality’ in the Medieval Discourse on Asia 17 1.1.1 Classical Myths and Legendary Traditions on Asia in the Early Middle Ages 17 1.1.2 ‘Mythical ’ and ‘Factual’ Representations of Asia in the Mongol Era 24 1.2 Marco Polo and ‘Cipangu’ 34 1.3 The Cartographical ‘Reality’ of Asia and Japan in the fifteenth century 37 1.4 Expanding Trade and the Evolving ‘Maps’ of Asia and Japan in the Era of ‘Great Discoveries’ 45 2 The Circulation of Lay Sources on Japan in the Sixteenth Century 57 2.1 The Portuguese Encounter with Japan: Portuguese First-Hand Merchant Reports and Lay Histories and Their Circulation 57 2.2 The Spanish Competition: Circulation of Spanish Sources on Japan in the Sixteenth Century 68 2.3 Cartography on Japan in the Sixteenth Century 72 3 Production and Circulation of Jesuit Sources on Japan in the Sixteenth Century 79 3.1 The Jesuit Mission in Japan in the Sixteenth Century: Valignano’s Vision 79 3.2 The Published Jesuit Reports on Japan 94 3.3 Francis Xavier’s Reports: Laying the Foundations of the Mission 98 3.4 The Published Jesuit Letter-books: Shaping an Imaginary of Japan 105 3.5 The Impact of the Reports in Europe: Italian Editions in the Sixteenth Century 117 4 Appendix 125 Bibliography 137 Self Through the