FREITAS, Frei Serafim de.- DE | IVSTO IMPERIO | LVSITANORVM | ASIATICO. | Auctor Doctor Fr. Seraphino de Freitas ...

FREITAS, Frei Serafim de.- DE | IVSTO IMPERIO | LVSITANORVM | ASIATICO. | Auctor Doctor Fr. Seraphino de Freitas Lusitano in Pinciana | Academia Academia Vespertinæ in Sacris Canonibus Cathedræ an- | tecessore ê Mercenarijs minimo...- Vallisoleti: Ex Officina Hieronymi Morillo, 1625.- [8], 190, [28] f.; 19 cm.- E.
Original edition of an important work on Portuguese Asian possessions, which would only be republished in 1925. The author (ca. 1570-1633), Portuguese jurist, born in Lisbon, studied at the Anthony the Great Jesuit College and received a doctorate in Canons from the University of Coimbra; from 1608 he entered the Convent of Nª. Mrs. da Mercê, in Valladolid, the city where he was a lawyer and teacher. The work, published in response to another by Hugo Grotius (Mare liberum..., 1608), is part of the controversy over freedom of navigation on the seas and, in this specific case, the dispute between the Dutch and Portuguese, then under Philippine rule. The text is entirely Latin, with the exception of the licenses which are in Castilian; the title page is composed of black and red; at the end of the text, the colophon: Vallisoleti: Ex Officina Hieronymi Morillo. Almæ Vniversitatis Typographi. Anno M. DC. XXV. Two old manuscripts on the title page: Luis de Mértola Carmelita; From Livraria do Carmo de Sec. al(?). Some handwritten notes, from the time, in the second free endpaper; purchase inscription on the first free endpaper: Purchased at the book auction at the Bibliotheca Publica in Lisbon on September 26, 1865. B. dos M. Mag. e Souza. Copy a little cropped, but clean. 19th century binding, with leather spine. Inocêncio, XIX, p. 357. Samodães, 1325. Ávila Perez, 3101. Palau, 94957.