Note 84 — Chapter XXI

An account in Italian of Sotelo’s embassy, Historia del Regno de Voxu del Giaponi, etc., e del Ambasciata, etc., was published at Rome the same year, 1615. There is no Japanese letter of later date than 1601, in the collection of Hay, or, as perhaps it ought rather to be called, of Martin Nutius (at least so his name was written in Latin), citizen and bookseller of Antwerp, at the sign of the two storks, “a man zealous for the Catholic faith,” so Hay says, and by whom the collection was projected. He applied to the rector of the Jesuit college at Antwerp for an editor, and Hay was appointed. A few of the letters were translated by Hay; the greater part had already appeared as separate pamphlets, translated by others. Hay’s vehement Scotch controversial spirit breaks out hotly in some of the dedicatory letters which he has introduced. Of the Japanese letters subsequent to 1601 there is no collection. They were published separately as they were received, translated into Italian, from which were made French and Spanish translations.