Tianjie 天階 / 潘國光.
Print edition. Mss. reproduced in Xujiahui cangshulou Ming-Qing Tianzhujiao wenxian xubian 徐家匯藏書樓明清天主教文獻續編, vol. 17, pp. 495-518.

Note: The surmise (below) that this text is an adaptation of Bellarmine's De ascensione mentis in Deum per scalas creaturarum opusculum is incorrect. See: Ad Dudink & Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database)

JapSin I, 107
Tianjie 天階.
By Pan Guoguang 潘國光 (Francesco Brancati, 1607–1671).
One juan. Chinese bamboo paper in one volume. No date or place of publication.

The cover bears the title in handwriting and a Latin inscription: “Caeli scala, sive piae | mentis elevationes | a. p. Franc. Brancati, S.J.”

Folio 1 gives the title and the name of the author. There are eight columns in each half folio. On the upper middle of the folio the title is given together with the number of the folio. The booklet contains ten folios.
According to Sommervogel (t. II, col. 81) this booklet is probably a translation from one of the works of St. Robert Bellarmine. It has for its purpose the lifting up of the hearts of the faithful to God in their daily lives.
Cf. Pfister, pp. 228–229, no. 5; Hsü 1949, p. 89; Courant 6964–6967 (Élévation de l’âme vers Dieu); Couplet, p. 31 (Ascensio mentis in Deum ex creaturis).

Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, p. 157.

"Important are the spiritual books that present themselves as guides, compasses, or roads for avoiding evil and proceeding towards heaven: Tianjie 天階 (1650, Brancati)..." Cf. Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China, v. 1, p. 630.

Cf. Ad Dudink & Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database).
Local access dig.pdf. [Brancati-Tianjie.pdf]
Online at Gallica.