LETTRES EDIFIANTES ET CURIEUSES. -
Title of a collection of letters sent by Jesuit missionaries, on events, traditions, journeys, monuments, discoveries, and persons concerning the peoples and territories of the missions where they worked. The collection was begun by Fr. Charles Le Gobien.He had already published various works of a missionary nature, which had aroused keen interest among the educated classes: Lettres sur les progrès de la religion à la Chine (Paris 1697); Histoire de l'édit de l'empereur de Chine en faveur de la religion chrétienne (ibid. 1698); Histoire des Iles Mariannes nouvellement converties à la religion chrétienne (ibid. 1700); and in 1702: Lettres de quelques missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jésus écrites de la Chine et des Indes orientales (ibid. 1702). The reception of this last work was so enthusiastic that Le Gobien decided to continue the publication under the title mentioned above, and he was able to edit the first 8 vols. of the series (ibid. 1703-1708, reprinted 1717). After Le Gobien's death, vols. 9-34 were edited by Frs. J.-B. du Halde, L. Patrouillet, J.-B. Geoffroy, and N. Maréchal (ibid. 1709-76). A new edition followed, but with a different arrangement according to a geographical criterion, edited by Fr. Yves-Mathurin de Querbeux, assisted for the notes by Fr. G. Brotier (26 vols., ibid. 1780-81). Other editions followed in 1819; 1829-31; 1838-43. An abridged edition under the title Panthéon littéraire was produced under the editorship of L.-Aimé Martin (ibid. 1838-43). A selection in 8 vols. appeared under the title Choix des L. è. (Paris 1808); another selection in 2 vols., under the title Morceaux des L. è. (Paris 1810). The L. è. were not lacking in more or less complete versions in various languages: English, German, Spanish, Polish; the Italian one: Lettere edificanti e curiose (18 vols., Milan 1825-29) contains in its last two vols. the Lettere dall'India, published in Latin by Fr. P. Maffei and translated by F. Serdonati, and Il cristianesimo felice nel Paraguay by L. A. Muratori, an edition, however, considerably reduced.
The collection, which may be said to pursue the earlier type of the Lettere annue, published by the Jesuits from the time of St. F. Xavier onward, but with a greater breadth of content, is still a precious source for the history of the missions, for folklore, for the sciences, letters and arts, and religions with their rites, their sacrifices, and their books, and it later gave rise to the Neuer Welt-Bort of Fr. J. Stöcklein.
The example of the Jesuits was imitated from 1785 onward by the Gentlemen of the Foreign Missions of Paris. Until 1808, under various titles, several collections of letters from their missionaries followed in French, 3 in Italian, 1 in German. Finally, as the crowning of the work: Nouvelles L. é. from 1818 to 1823 in 8 vols. with the most important letters from 1767 to 1820. From 1822 the Work of the Propagation of the Faith published the Annales de l'Association de la Propagation de la Foi (v.), as the title expressly indicates, continuing all the previous publications: « Collection faisant suite à toutes les éditions des L. é. ».
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