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APPIAN.
Romanorum Historiarum - ex bibliotheca Regia.
Paris, Carolus Stephanus; 1551.
£2450.00
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EDITIO PRINCEPS, folio, pp.393 (iii). "Estienne's basilisk device as king's printer for Greek texts (Renouard 471) on the title page. Unillustrated. Printed in the three fonts of Claude Garamont's 'grecs du roi', with headpieces and Greek initials as described under No. 219. Generally cited as a superb example of the use of the royal types," Mortimer cit. infr. Couple of marginal dustmarks to t-p, occasional slight marginal foxing, a very good clean well-margined copy in early 17th C vellum over boards, yapp foreedges, a.e.r. First edition of the original Greek text "in by far the best type of its kind that has ever been cut" (Updike cit. infr.). Appian had the idea of giving a history of the various peoples of Europe, Africa and Asia from earliest times down to their incorporation into the Roman Empire, and of the Romans by describing separately each of their great wars. The most valuable part of the work comprises the history of the civil wars, containing the only extant extracts of such documents as Augustus' "Memoirs" and the preamble to the proscription lists of Anthony, Octavius and Lepidus; there is also an account of the vicissitudes experienced by Caesar in invading Britain. The edition was begun by Robert Estienne before his departure for Geneva, and completed by his brother Charles; it is one of the only two Greek works the latter produced. For the first time Charles appears here as 'typis regiis' and it was also the first use in a classical text of all three fonts of Garamond's 'Grecs du Roi.' The splendid decorations and initials are by Geoffrey Tory.
BM STC Fr. p.21. Adams A 1340. "Première édition, belle et rare…", Brunet I 366. Mortimer, Harvard 16th C Fr. 29 (reproducing title-page). "One of the most exquisite books printed from these fonts," Updike I p. 237 (reproducing A2). "There are few Greek volumes of more beautiful execution", Dibdin I p. 280. Renouard 102:4. Hoffmann I 214 "Erste, schöne und seltene textausgabe".
L950
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