The monumental Istoria della Compagnia di Gesu (Rome, 1650–1673), in 6 folio volumes by the Jesuit man of letters and historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 Daniello Bartoli

Daniello Bartoli

thumb|right| Daniello Bartoli "Obiit Romae, die 13 Januarii, anno 1685, aet. 77"Daniello Bartoli was an Italian Jesuit writer and historiographer, celebrated by Francesco de Sanctis as the "Dante of Italian prose".-Ferrara:He was born in Ferrara. His father, Tiburzio was a chemist associated with...

 is the most extensive classic

Classic

The word classic means something that is a perfect example of a particular style, something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality. The word can be an adjective or a noun . It denotes a particular quality in art, architecture, literature and other cultural artifacts...

 of Italian literature

Italian literature

Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....

, over ten thousand pages long. It begins the centenary history of the Jesuits between 1540 and 1640 with an authoritative if somewhat ponderous biography of the founder Ignatius Loyola,

Della Vita e dell'Instituto di S. Ignatio

The first part of Bartoli's undertaking begins wirh an introduction to his general plan which after this biography wiil extend to the four corners of the earth. In addition to the library of manuscripts in the Jesuit archives, Bartoli acknowledges the writings of his predecessors, Juan de Polanco, Loyola's secretary, and biographers Pedro de Ribadeneira

Pedro de Ribadeneira

Pedro de Ribadeneira was a Spanish hagiologist.He was born at Toledo, Spain. His father, Alvaro Ortiz de Cisneros, was the son of Pedro Gonzales Cedillo and grandson of Hernando Ortiz de Cisneros, whom Ferdinand IV had honoured with the governorship of Toledo and important missions.As a lad, Pedro...

, Giovanni Pietro Maffei

Giovanni Pietro Maffei

Giovanni Pietro Maffei , also anglicized as John Peter Maffei, was an Italian Jesuit and author. He wrote a life of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, and also wrote about the activities of the Society in the Orient.-Works:...

 and Niccolo Orlandini

Niccolò Orlandini

-Biography:He was born at Florence.He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1572, became rector of the Jesuit college at Nola and was master of novices at Naples for five years....

. The work is organized in five books, of which the third is a disquisition on the Jesuit Institutes and Constitution

Constitution

A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

. Book 4 is dedicated to the virtues and the death of Ignatius. Book 5 is dedicated to the saint's miracles After the first edition Ignatio De Lazzeri brought out a second edition (Rome, 1659) with the programmatic frontispiece of Cornelis Bloemaert

Cornelis Bloemaert

Cornelis Bloemaert II , was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver.-Biography:Bloemaert was born at Utrecht. He studied with his father, Abraham Bloemaert, his brothers Hendrick and Adriaan, and his father's pupil, Gerard van Honthorst...

L'Asia

Particularly fascinating and exotic are the three parts of his Asia narrating the stories of Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montmartre in 1534...

 and the Jesuits in the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. L'Asia (1653) begins the story of the missions in India and Japan up to the death of Xavier. Bartoli narrates the story of the Jesuit mission to Akbar the Great

Akbar the Great

Akbar , also known as Shahanshah Akbar-e-Azam or Akbar the Great , was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Emperor Humayun, and the grandson of the Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India...

 in Fatehpur Sikri

Fatehpur Sikri

Fatehpur Sikri is a city and a municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Built near the much older Sikri, the historical city of Fatehabad, as it was first named, was constructed by Mughal emperor Akbar beginning in 1570...

 of Rodolfo Acquaviva

Rodolfo Acquaviva

Rodolfo Acquaviva Italian Jesuit missionary to India, at the court of Akbar the Great, 1580–1583; Martyred, 1583; Blessed, 1893....

 and of his martyrdom in Salcete in 1581 in a smaller work of 1653 Missione al Gran Mogor del p. Ridolfo Acquaviva This was added to the third edition of L'Asia in 1667. Il Giappone (1660) recounts the flourishing missions in Japan of the sixteenth century after Xavier and the persecutions and martydoms of the seventeenth. La Cina (1663) recounts the intellectual and intercultural adventure of the Jesuit missions in China centering around the figure of Matteo Ricci

Matteo Ricci

Matteo Ricci, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th-18th centuries. His current title is Servant of God....

.

L'Europa

As a universal history of the first Jesuit century Bartoli announces in his introduction to the first volume a plan to cover the world in its four corners (see the iconographic illustration) whereby the seated Orient and Europe would be followed by Africa and the Americas yet standing. After the fascinating and also excruciating epic of the Asia Bartoli turns his pen and wits closer to home beginning his Europa with the dramatic story of the English missions, L'Inghilterra (1670) and finally to the auspicious Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 beginnings of the Italian Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 in L'Italia (1673) up to the death of Francis Borgia

Francis Borgia

Saint Francis Borgia, 4th duke of Gandía, 3rd Father General of the Jesuit Order, Grandee of Spain, was a Spanish Jesuit and third Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He was canonized on 20 June 1670.-Early life:He was born Francesco Borgia de Candia d'Aragon within the Duchy of Gandía,...

in 1565.

Degli Uomini e dei Fatti della Compagnia di Gesu: Memorie storiche

Seeing that his historiographical commitment to Jesuit history in the four corners of the world was beyond him, the elderly Bartoli assembled a chronicle of the first fifty years of the order's history between 1540 and 1590. This work was left in manuscript in the Jesuit archives in Rome until it was published by Giacinto Marieitti, Turin printer of the complete edition of Bartoli's works, between 1847 and 1856 in five volumes.