Antonio Francisco Cardim (1596-1659), the Portuguese missionary, was born at Viana do Alentejo in the See of Evora. Joining the Society of Jesus in 1611, he was sent to China seven years later. The following twenty years he spent chiefly in Macao, visiting meantimes several countries of the Far East, including Japan. Appointed to the post of procurator of his province in Rome, he published the present work there in 1646. His first important published work, La mort glorieuse de soixante et un chre´tiens de Macao, decapites pour la confession de la foi a Nagasaki, appeared at Lille in 1613. Among his other writings on Japan is Relazione della Provincia del Giappone, published at Rome in 1645.
　　The present work, which treats of the early Christian martyrs in Japan, was compiled during the author's first period of residence in Macao in or about the year 1635. In it the author compares the glorious martyred to a bunch of flowers, the title-page bearing the inscription "Qui legitis flores, hos legite; sic quoniam positi suaves miscentur odores." At the end of the volume is a list of all those who gave up their lives for the sake of their faith during the years 1557-1640.