This book opens a window on the Jesuit mission to the court of Emperor Akbar in 1570–1582. And it does so in a splendid edition that provides an excellent opportunity to read the accounts of the Catalan Jesuit Antoni de Montserrat otherwise. Throughout the 1570s, the heir to the Timurid dynasty undertook a series of reforms aimed at reasserting the emperor’s authority and centralizing power. In 1578, Akbar sent an embassy to Goa requesting “two learned priests” for the Mughal court. However, his interest in Christianity and the Jesuits was ambiguous. He wanted to know about the Estado da India as much as the Portuguese wanted to know about the “Mongols” (Mughals). On November 10, 1579, the Jesuit provincial of Goa, Rui Vicente (1523–1587), sent three selected missionaries to the Mughal court – Rodolfo Acquaviva (1550–1583), Antoni de Montserrat (1536–1600), and Francisco Henriques (1538–1597) – whose mission was to make Akbar “a new Constantine for the total ruin of the sect of Muhammad.” This mission was not only religious but also diplomatic, making the Jesuits the eyes and ears of the ecclesiastical and political authorities of the Portuguese in Goa. Montserrat’s proximity to Akbar’s inner circle allowed him to gather information on the organization of the Mughal court and its administrative apparatus. However, Akbar’s interest in the Jesuits seemed to be motivated solely by “reasons of state,” which confirmed the provincial’s negative perception of the potential of the Mughal court. After Akbar’s failed attempt to organize an embassy to King Philip I of Portugal (r. 1580–1598), Montserrat began writing the Relaçam do Equebar, rey dos Mogores (1582), which was the first detailed account of the Mughal Empire based on first-hand observation, and later on, the Mogolicae legationis commentaries (ca. 1589–1600), a more detailed and ambitious account of the Mughal Empire and the Jesuit activities there. In sum, Montserrat’s texts included in this volume allow us to beautifully grasp the social and political implications of early modern Jesuit missions and their mechanisms of cross-cultural interaction at a micro-historical level (Joan-Pau Rubiés, “Preface,” xxii).