Research Laboratories of Archaeology


Jesuit Letters: Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses

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The "edifying and curious" letters of the Jesuit missionaries -- Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses, écrites des missions étrangères par quelques missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jésus -- are a valuable source of ethnographic and historical information from many parts of the world in the early to mid eighteenth century.

The 34 volumes in the first edition, published in duodecimo by various houses in Paris, were issued from 1703 to 1776. They contain letters from many parts of Asia and the Americas. The entries in each volume were published "as received," not organized by geography. This shortcoming was corrected in the second edition, published in 26 duodecimo volumes that appeared from 1780 to 1783. Here the letters were rearranged geographically, with multiple volumes devoted to the Levant (vols. 1-5), the Americas (vols. 6-9), the East Indies (vols. 10-15, 25-26), and China (vols 16-24). Subsequent editions, mostly based on the second, appeared in 1810, 1819, 1829, and 1838. A detailed description of the volumes in the first and second editions was published in the Jesuit Relations (vol. 66, p. 298 ff.). A more recent description focusing on the history of this series can be found here.

This page provides links to all the volumes in the first and second editions. It also includes links to the English translations of selected letters by Bishop William Kip that were first published in 1846 and 1866. The entries appear below in three categories:

  1. First Edition (1703-1776)
  2. Second Edition (1780-1783)
  3. Kip's Translations (1846)

Within each category the volumes are listed in order, along with their dates of publication (and sometimes republication). The digitized books reside at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB); University of Toronto (UTor); University of Pittsburgh (UPitt); University of Michigan (UMich); University of California, Berkeley (UCal); John Carter Brown Library (JCBL); Boston College (BosC); New York Public Library (NYPL); and Library of Congress (LC). Many are posted on the web sites of the Internet Archive (IA) or Hathi Trust (HT). Click here for a complete list of repositories and their abbreviations.

[The documents on this site were compiled by Vincas P. Steponaitis. Please email comments and suggestions to him at vps@email.unc.edu.]
 

A.   First Edition (1703-1776):

Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses, écrites des missions étrangères par quelques missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jésus. 34 volumes. Edited by Charles Le Gobien [v. 1-8], Jean-Baptiste Du Halde [v. 9-26], Louis Patouillet [v. 27-28, 31, 33-34], and Ambrose Maréchal [v. 29-30, 32]. Various imprints [see individual entries], Paris, 1703-1776.

Volume

  1. I. Recueil. (1703) [BSB] [UMich]
  2. II. Recueil. (1703) [BSB] [UMich]
  3. III. Recueil. (1703) [BSB] [UMich]
  4. IV. Recueil. (1704) [BSB] [UMich]
  5. V. Recueil. (1705, 1708) [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  6. VI. Recueil. (1706, 1723) [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  7. VII. Recueil. (1707) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  8. VIII. Recueil. (1708) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  9. IX. Recueil. (1711) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  10. X. Recueil. (1713) [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  11. XI. Recueil. (1715) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  12. XII. Recueil. (1717) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  13. XIII. Recueil. (1718) [UTor] [BSB] [UMich] [JCBL]
  14. XIV. Recueil. (1720) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  15. XV. Recueil. (1722) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  16. XVI. Recueil. (1724) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  17. XVII. Recueil. (1726) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  18. XVIII. Recueil. (1728) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  19. XIX. Recueil. (1729) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  20. XX. Recueil. (1731) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  21. XXI. Recueil. (1734) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  22. XXII. Recueil. (1736) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  23. XXIII. Recueil. (1738) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  24. XXIV. Recueil. (1739) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  25. XXV. Recueil. (1741) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  26. XXVI. Recueil. (1743) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  27. XXVII. Recueil. (1749) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich]
  28. XXVIII. Recueil. (1758) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [UMich] [NYPL]
  29. XXIX. Recueil. (1773) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [NYPL]
  30. XXX. Recueil. (1773) [JCBL] [UTor] [BSB] [NYPL]
  31. XXXI. Recueil. (1774) [BSB]
  32. XXXII. Recueil. (1774) [BSB] [NYPL]
  33. XXXIII. Recueil. (1776) [NYPL]
  34. XXXIV. Recueil. (1776) [NYPL]
    35.  
B.   Second Edition (1780-1783):

Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses, écrites des missions étrangères. Nouvelle édition. 26 volumes. Edited by Yves Mathurin de Querboeuf. J.G. Mérigot le Jeune, Paris, 1780-1783.

Volume

  1. Mémoires du Levant (1780) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [UMich] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  2. Mémoires du Levant (1780) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UMich] [UCal]
  3. Mémoires du Levant (1780) [JCBL] [UMich] [UCal]
  4. Mémoires du Levant (1780) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  5. Mémoires du Levant (1780) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  6. Mémoires d'Amérique (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [UMich] [UCal]
  7. Mémoires d'Amérique (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UCal] [UMich]
  8. Mémoires d'Amérique (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [UMich] [UCal]
  9. Mémoires d'Amérique (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UMich] [UCal]
  10. Mémoires des Indes (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  11. Mémoires des Indes (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  12. Mémoires des Indes (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  13. Mémoires des Indes (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  14. Mémoires des Indes (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [UMich] [UCal]
  15. Mémoires des Indes (1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  16. Mémoires de la Chine, &c.(1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  17. Mémoires de la Chine, &c.(1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  18. Mémoires de la Chine, &c.(1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [UMich] [UCal]
  19. Mémoires de la Chine, &c.(1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  20. Mémoires de la Chine, &c.(1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  21. Mémoires de la Chine, &c.(1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [UMich] [UCal]
  22. Mémoires de la Chine, &c.(1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  23. Mémoires de la Chine, &c.(1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [UMich] [UCal]
  24. Mémoires de la Chine, &c.(1781) [JCBL] [UPitt] [BosC-IA] [BosC-HT] [UMich] [UCal]
  25. Mémoires des Indes et de la Chine (1783) [JCBL] [UPitt] [UMich] [UCal]
  26. Mémoires des Indes et de la Chine (1783) [JCBL] [UPitt] [UMich] [UCal]  
C.   Kip's Translations (1846):
  • Kip, William Ingraham
    1846: The Early Jesuit Missions in North America, Compiled and Translated from the Letters of the French Jesuits, with Notes. Wiley and Putnam, New York. [Other imprints are dated 1847 and 1848.] [IA (1846)] [IA (1847)] [IA (1847)] [UCal (1847)] [LC (1847)] [NYPL (1848)]

  • Kip, William Ingraham
    1866: The Early Jesuit Missions in North America, Compiled and Translated from the Letters of the French Jesuits, with Notes. J. Munsell, Albany. [Another imprint is dated 1873.] [IA (1866)] [LC (1873)]

    •