Beschreibung:

JOSEPHUS, Flavius (ca 37-ca 100). De antiquitate Judaica . Latin translation from the Greek, commissioned by Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (ca 490-ca 583). -- De bello Judaico . Latin translation from the Greek, attributed to Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquilea (ca 345-410). Augsburg: Johann Schüssler, 28th June-23rd August 1470. Royal 2 o (392 x 293 mm). Collation : [1 1 0 (9+1) 2-3 1 2 4-16 1 0 17 8 18-19 1 0 20 8 (-1/1 prologue and table, 1/2r end of table, Jewish Antiquities text, 20/8r statement counting 60 thousand lines in the work, anonymous 7-line verse on Antiquitates , Eusebius's commendation of Josephus, 20/8v De septem mirabilibus mundi , first colophon); 21-27 1 0 28-29 8 (21/1r Jewish War text, 29/8v anonymous 3-line verse on Belli Judaici , second colophon)]. 286 leaves only (of 287; lacking the first). Gothic type 1:117. 50 lines, double column. Many manuscript signatures and catchwords preserved. Augsburg rubrication, perhaps from Schüssler's shop: 27 large initials in red, with red (17), blue (7) or brown (3) penwork decoration; smaller initials, paragraph-marks and book-number headings in red. (Short tears mended in 5/9 and 24/1, minor worming at beginning and end, first and last page dust-soiled.) Early-20th-century brown half morocco. Provenance : Bamberg, Franciscan Minorites (inscription) -- A. Edward Newton 1930 (bookplate, inscription) -- Gordon A. Block Jr, sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet 29 January 1974, lot 112 -- purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 1 February 1974. FIRST EDITION of both texts, which are classics of historiography and the most important post-Biblical sources for early Jewish history. Originally in Aramaic, the Greek version was Josephus's own. For a summary of the questions raised by the Latin translations, see H. Schreckenberg, Die Flavius-Josephus-Tradition in Antike und Mittelalter (Leyden 1972). Josephus's two references to Christ -- the earliest outside the New Testament -- may be early interpretations by Christians. The first book produced by Schüssler, Augsburg's second printer. It is one of the most important first editions of classical literature published north of the Alps. This copy may have been rubricated in or for Schüssler's shop, as the initials are closely related to those found in books bound by the "Wundervogel" atelier, which either worked for Schüssler or was his own (cf Doheny I, lots 39-41). UNPRESSED COPY. HC *9451; BMC II, 327; BSB I-615; Walsh 527; Goff J-481.