LETTERS EDIFIANT AND CURIOUS. - Title of a collection of letters sent by Jesuit missionaries concerning events, traditions, travels, monuments, discoveries, and notable figures among the peoples and territories where they worked. The collection was initiated by Fr. Carlo Le Gobien.
He had already published various works of a missionary nature that had aroused great 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 de la Chine et des Indes orientales* (ibid. 1702). The enthusiastic reception of this last work led Le Gobien to continue the publication under the aforementioned title, and he oversaw the first eight volumes of the series (ibid. 1703–1708; reprint 1717). After Le Gobien’s death, volumes 9–34 were edited by Frs. J.-B. du Halde, L. Patrouillet, J.-B. Geoffroy, and N. Maréchal (ibid. 1709–1716). A new edition followed, reorganized geographically, edited by Fr. Yves-Mathurin de Querbeux, with notes by Fr. G. Brotier (26 vols., ibid. 1708–1781). Further editions appeared in 1819; 1829–31; 1838–
43. An abridged edition under the title *Panthéon littéraire* was prepared by L
Aimé Martin (ibid. 1838–43). A selection in eight volumes was published as *Choix des L. é.* (Paris 1808), and another in two volumes as *Morceaux des L. é.* (Paris 1810). The *L. é.* were also translated, more or less completely, into various languages: English, German, Spanish, Polish; the Italian version, *Lettere edificanti e curiose* (18 vols., Milan 1825–29), includes in its final two volumes the *Lettres de l'Inde*, originally published in Latin by Fr. P. Maffei and translated by F. Serdonati, as well as a somewhat abridged edition of L. A. Muratori’s *Il cristianesimo felice nel Paraguay*.
This collection, which may be said to follow the earlier model of the *Annuae Litterae* published by the Jesuits since the time of St. Francis Xavier, but with a broader scope, remains a valuable source for the history of missions, folklore, the sciences, literature, the arts, and religions—including their rites, sacrifices, sacred books—and later gave rise to the *Neuer Welt-Bott* of Fr. J. Stöcklein.
From 1785 onward, the example of the Jesuits was imitated by the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Until 1808, various collections of letters from their missionaries appeared in French under different titles, as well as three in Italian and one in German. Finally, crowning the work, the *Nouvelles L. é.* were published from 1818 to 1823 in eight volumes, containing the most important letters from 1767 to 1820. From 1822, the Propagation of the Faith published the *Annales de l'Association de la Propagation de la Foi* (q.v.), explicitly continuing all previous publications: “Collection faisant suite à toutes les éditions des L. é.”
GIOVANNI ROMMERSKIRCHEN-CELESTINO TESTORE