Search Results: Classical & Byzantine Historians, Geographers & Specialist Authors from Bryars and Bryars

Amstelodami [Amsterdam], Sumptibus Wetstenii., 1746.. 2 vols. Folio. pp. [xxxviii], 731, [v]; [iv], 666, [cviii] (index). With half title, additional engraved title and portrait of Wesseling to volume one. Letterpress titles printed in red and black, with engraved vignettes. Text in Greek and Latin. Occasional minor spotting. Contemporary Dutch blind-stamped vellum, gilt, a couple of chips to head and tail of spine of second volume, lack free end-paper to vol I. Dibdin sums up the importance and beauty of this edition: ‘the splendour and critical excellence of all former editions, sayes Harles, are eclipsed by this of Peter Wesseling, which contains everything to be found in the preceding ones; and besides a learned preface, useful notes, and various illustrations of the author, presents us with the readings of better MSS., and very full and perfect indexes.’ Dibdin I, 497 Book

Parisiis [Paris] apud Ioannem Camusat [...], 1636. 4to. pp. [xx], 488, [lvi], 444. Title-page printed in red and black. Contemporary vellum, some wear to the lower of the yapp edges. Late 17th-century ownership inscription of G. Anslarius (Guilielmus or Willem Anslaer, 1633-1694, scholar and theologian, and son in law of the Leiden professor Johannes Cocceius). First of the two excellent Valesius editions. Dibdin I, 256. Book

Lutetiae Parisiorum [Paris], Typis Regiis., 1620.. Folio. pp. [xii], 843, [cxx], 282, [x]. Greek and Latin parallel text. Title printed in red and black, with engraved device. Marginal waterstaining and mould-damage to the lower fore-corners, affecting approximately the first and last 40 leaves. Late 18th century sprinkled calf, a little rubbed and worn to extremities, upper joint renewed. Old ownership inscriptions to title, including Thomas Blomer, 1661, possibly the Rev. Thomas Blomer, schoolfriend and correspondent of John Locke, and Chaplain to the Earl of Northumberland. This is the second Casaubon edition, described by Dibdin as ‘much more accurate and splendid than the first’. The first edition of the classical geographer Strabo was printed by Aldus, but was based on a very poor manuscript. Casaubon’s editions are the first great, critical editions of this infrequently printed author. Dibdin II, 433. Book

Francofurti [Frankfurt]: apud hæredes Andreæ Wecheli, [and] Aureliæ Allobrogum [Geneva], 1583 and 1607. Two works bound as one, folio. Pausanias: pp. [xii], 1-377, cols. 378-507; p. 508, pp. [lxxxi]; [xii], 302, cols 303-352, [i]. Aristophanes: pp. [xxxvi], 916, [xxvii]. Text in Greek and Latin. One or two light spots and stains, with light waterstaining to the upper corner towards the end of the volume; a few scattered annotations in different old hands; paper fault towards the gutter of the title page of Aristophanes, not affecting letters of text. Early 17th century vellum, title inked to spine, lettered ‘STPD’ to upper cover with the date 1609, somewhat worn with short (7 cm) split at the foot of the front joint; endpapers renewed in the late 19th century. Ownership inscription on the title of Otto Friedrich Plagemaar, who purchased the book in 1724; on the front free endpaper is an inscription by Carl Stuhlmann, who bought the book in August 1874 and renovated it in… Read More

Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden], apud Johannem Arnoldum Langerak, 1729. 8vo. pp. [lxxx], 774, [lxiv]. Latin text, title-page printed in red and black; contemporary sprinkled calf, rubbed, gilt spine, upper joint cracked at head and foot but firm. Armorial bookplate of Samuel James, Baron Waring. Eutropius was a late fourth-century pagan historian, a contemporary of Julian the Apostate. His “Breviarum” is dedicated to Valens. Dibdin follows Harwood in calling Havercamp’s edition “excellent”. Dibdin II, 3. Book

[Geneva] Excudebat Henricus Stephanus, 1564. Folio. pp. [xvi], 297, [iii], 216 [viii]. Greek text, with Latin translation following; title-page printed in red and black; foliated initials and ornamental headpieces; small wormtrack in the gutter, not affecting text, running approximately between pp. 219-265; light watertaining at intervals, mostly marginal. Late 17th century English panelled calf, rebacked, worn, corners somewhat rounded and some leather on upper cover renewed. Ownership inscription scratched out on title-page, with another (mostly) cropped from the front free-endpaper (‘William -, St John’s, Cambridge’); another, of Levi Haigh, is dated 1915 and a note records his purchase of the book from one George Bromley. Thucydides’ ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’, a near contemporary account of the fifth century BCE war between Athens and Sparta, claims objectivity and is widely regarded as one of the earliest scholarly historical works. This is the first… Read More

Basileae [Basel] ex Officina Hervagiana,, 1557-1540. 2 works bound in one volume, folio. pp. [xx], 310, [ii], blank; [xxiv], 178, [iv], blank, with woodcut printer's device to verso of both final leaves. Greek text, numerous early marginal notes and alternative readings in the first work, occasional annotations in an early hand in the second. Near contemporary quarter pigskin over pasteboard, rubbed. Johannes Herwagen was a protestant printer from Strasbourg. He became a citizen of Basel in 1528 and married Johann Froben's widow. Froben had made Basel a centre for the priting of Greek and Latin texts, modelling his business on the example of scholar-printer Aldus Mantutius. Herwagen continued the tradition, collaborating at first with his stepson Hieronymus Froben and his brother Nicholas Episcopius, and printing under his own name from 1531. He was fined and expelled from the city in 1542, after having an affair with his stepson's wife, but Landgrave Philip of Hesse, Duke Christoph von… Read More

Amstelodami [Amsterdam]: apud Janssonio Waesbergios,, 1683. 8vo. pp. [xiv], 450, [iv] errata. With additional engraved title, two folding maps and folding table of military formations. (Further stub facing p.129, but no indication that anything has been removed.) Parallel text in Greek and Latin edited by Nicolaas Blanckaert or Blankaart. Several engravings of military formations in the text of the Ars Tactica. A clean copy. Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, slightly soiled and stained. Arrian rose to the highest military and civil offices in the Roman Empire, becoming consul in 130 AD. He is most famous for his history of Alexander the Great, but also composed a number of valuable other works collected here. His Tactica reflects his time in the army, and the second work in this collection is a report of a military operation undertaken by Arrian himself to contain tribes of Iranian horsemen (the Alans) in the Steppes of Southern Russia. It contains detailed information about the Black Sea Coasts.… Read More

Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden], apud Samuelem Luchtmans,, 1715. Folio. pp. [xx], 1000, [lvi]. With half title, additonal engraved title, letterpress title printed in red and black, and with one double-page engraved plate (facing p. 138). Parallel text in Greek and Latin. Occasional pencilled annotation in a 19th century hand. Contemporary prize vellum, arms of Leiden, somewat worn and rebackedin late 20th century pigskin, end-papers and ribbon ties renewed. Ownership inscriptions of R.W. Blencowe dated 1809 and 1810. Book

Lutetiae [Paris], E Typographia Steph. Prevosteau [...], 1583-85. Two works bound in one volume: 12mo, pp. xxiv, 347, [i]. 12mo, pp. [ii], 11, [xi], 90. Old ink-burn D11-E9 in the first work (ie pp. 93-114), particularly noticeable E3-E6. Second work lacks two of the final leaves of text. (Text concludes with the errata on verso of H1; H2 and H3 have been extracted; H4, blank as called for by Adams, is present.). Greek and Latin text. Contemporary limp vellum. Two early ownership inscriptions on title. The clearer of the two reads “Ex libris Ioa. Maussaci” in an early seventeenth century hand, possibly Philippe Jacques de Maussac (1590-1650), president in Montpellier and a Greek scholar (he edited Harpocration in 1614, cf. Sandys II, p. 287). First edition of the commentary on the Golden Verses of ‘Pythagorus’ by the fifth-century Neoplatonist Hierocles, discovered in the library of François de la Rochefoucauld-Randan and edited and translated by Curterius; bound here with… Read More

Excudebat Henricus Stephanus [...], 1566.. Folio. pp. [xxxii], 256, 12, [ii], [xxii]. With large printer’s device to title. Occasional very light marginal waterstaining, but generally clean and with good margins. Old calf backed marbled boards, somewhat rubbed and worn. Adams H403. Book

Londini [London]: Ex officina Jacobi Tonson, & Johannis Watts., 1713. 12mo. pp. [x], 281, [li] + engraved frontispiece. Latin text, title printed in red and black. Contemporary calf, label renewed. Book

Biponti [Zweibrücken]: ex Typographia Societatis, 1784. 8vo. pp. [ii], xxvi, 423, [xlvii]. Contemporary half sheep, very slightly rubbed, floral ornaments in the compartments on the spine. Receipt from a Hamburg bookseller dated 1960 still loosely inserted. Book

Genvae [Geneva]: sumptibus Samuelis Chouët, 1663. 4to. pp. [xvi], 779, [xxxiii] some browning and spotting due to paper quality, 18th century Italian vellum, title inked to spine; early 18th century inscription at foot of title-page, partially scratched through and illegible, referring to the book’s purchase in Rome. One of a number of 17th century editions edited by Pierre de Brosses and issued by the Chouët publishing dynasty. Cassiodorus was a 6th century statesman and scholar, serving Theodoric the Great and his successors in Ostrogothic Italy. OCLC 43746825 Book

Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden], apud Samuelem Luchtmans , 1744. 2 vols. in one, 8vo. pp. [xl], 748, [cxx]. Letterpress title-page printed in red & black; additional allegorical title-page engraved by Frans van Bleyswyk; contemporary sheep, gilt spine, rubbed and worn but sound. A soldier, senator and hsitorian, Velleius Paterculus covers Roman history from the earliest times to his own, c. AD 30. He was a friend of Sejanus, and may well have shared his fate when Sejanus fell suddenly and fatally from Tiberius’s favour. Dibdin describes both of the editions of Pieter Burman the elder as excellent: the first was published in 1719; ours is the second, ‘a reimpression of the first with considerable improvements’. Dibdin II, 525. Book

Parisiis [Paris], Ex Officina Antonii Dezallier [...], 1681. Folio. pp. [xxxii], xxxiv, 676, , [ii], 100, [xvi]. Slightly later blind-stamped sprinkled calf, rebacked. Ink library stamp of Repton School on title. Nineteenth-century armorial bookplates to front pastedown (L.A. Burd, schoolmaster, and another, motto ‘Avancez’). The first Valesius edition was editied by Henri de Valois and published in 1636. This edition was published by Henri’s brother Adrien, and incorporates new material, the posthumous notes of Henri and the notes of Lindenbrogius. Ammianus was the last great historian writing in Latin, though born in Greek-speaking Antioch in Syria. A pagan army officer, who served under Julian in Persia, the surviving books of Ammianus’ history are particularly valuable for his military and political insights into his own times: the reorganisation of the empire under Diocletian; the rise of Christianity under Constantine; the apostacy of Julian; the cataclysmic defeat at… Read More

Lugdundi Batavorum [Leiden]: apud Danielem à Gaesbeeck [and] Lugd. Batavorum [Leiden] apud Jacobus Hackius, 1688 and 1684. 2 related works, uniformly bound, folio. pp. [xviii], 772, [xxiv], 27, [i]; [xvi], 497, [xxxv]. Text in Greek and Latin, titles printed in red and black, occasional trivial spotting. Contemporary calf with gilt spines, lettered direct, some wear to covers and headcaps, upper joints cracked but firm. Armorial bookplate to the verso of the half title in volume two (none in volume one), of Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury (1682-1747) styled here Viscount Bruce of Ampthill (his title 1685-1741). His son Robert has written his ownership signature on the bookplate, dated 1729. Our copy was listed under small folio dictonaries and grammars in the catalogue of the library printed by Oxford University Press in 1733, one of the earliest English private library catalogues.Stephanus of Byzantium probably compiled his geographical dictionary in the reign of the first… Read More

Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden], apud Samuelem Luchtmans,, 1734.. 8vo. pp. [xxxii], 763, [clxxxiv]. With additional engraved title, and with letterpress title printed in red and black; a little light browning, ink-stain to fore-edge. Contemporary vellum, a little rubbed. Ticket of a Lisbon bookseller on the pastedown. This is the first van Staveren edition; his revised edition was published almost forty years later. Dibdin II, 246. Book