Les Jesuites criminels de leze majeste

The Hague: Vaillant, 1758. FIRST EDITION. Contemporary gilt calf-backed pastepaper boards, red edges, green silk marker. Gift inscription on the front flyleaf. A superior copy. First edition of this anti-Jesuit diatribe. The author trumps up a global conspiracy theory in which Jesuits murdered kings and emperors, including an organized plot to kill King Henry IV and the execution of Emperor Kangxi of China by missionaries. The text systematically moves from one country to the next, reporting on the supposed crimes that Jesuit residents or visitors committed there: sedition, fraud, homicide, theft, and libel.

Bibliotheca Brasiliense 1316; see Goldsmiths’-Kress 9442.