Beroso Caldeo / Nanni da Viterbo - Le Antichità - 1583

FALSE ANTIQUITIES, REWORKED HISTORY AND INVENTED AUTHORITY: BEROSUS BETWEEN ERESIA AND HUMANISM
Berossos the Chaldean’s Antiquities represent one of the most famous and controversial cases in Renaissance historiography: a work that, beneath the veneer of antiquarian erudition, constructs a remotest past by weaving authentic sources, apocryphal traditions, and deliberate falsifications. Attributed to Berossus, a Chaldean priest of the Hellenistic age, but actually revised and amplified by Giovanni Nanni da Viterbo, the Antiquities enjoyed extraordinary fortune in the sixteenth century, influencing genealogies, biblical chronologies, and national identities. The Venetian edition of 1583, curated and commented by Francesco Sansovino, renders the text in the vernacular, making it accessible to a wider audience and fixing one of the key moments in the Italian reception of the work.
MARKET VALUE
In the market for sixteenth-century antiquarian books tied to pseudo-history and Renaissance erudite tradition, this edition of Beroso’s Antiquities generally ranks between 800 and 1,500 euros, with notable variations depending on the condition of the binding, the completeness of the volume, and the quality of the exemplar. The contemporaneous parchment copies, even with structural defects, remain sought after for the historical and intellectual importance of the work and for the central role it played in debates on ancient and biblical history.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary parchment binding, with handwritten title on the spine; binding partially detached from the text block, some leaves detached; defects and restorations present. Printer’s device on the title page, headpieces and woodcut initials. Foxing and browning, sporadic small stains. In old books with a long history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 16; 208; (2).
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Le antichità.
Vinegia, presso Altobello Salicato, MDLXXXIII.
Beroso Caldeo.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The work stems from Giovanni Nanni da Viterbo’s wide project to reconstruct a universal, incredibly ancient history capable of harmonizing biblical tradition, classical sources, and Oriental myths. The Antiquities attributed to Berossus, now unanimously recognized as apocryphal, were long considered authentic and used to ground chronologies, cultural primacy, and dynastic genealogies. In the sixteenth century the text became a powerful ideological instrument, especially in humanist contexts interested in ennobling the origins of cities and peoples. The translation and commentary by Sansovino placed the work within the vernacular culture circuit, amplifying its diffusion and impact. Today the volume is read as a fundamental document of the Renaissance construction of the past and as a paradigmatic example of erudite falsification.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Giovanni Nanni, known as Annio da Viterbo, was born in 1432 and died in 1502. He was a Dominican, humanist, and antiquarian, famous for his research on antiquities and for the production of pseudo-ancient texts attributed to classical and Oriental authors. His work had enormous influence in the Renaissance, even as it was progressively exposed as apocryphal already in the sixteenth century.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Berossus’s Antiquities enjoyed wide printing circulation from the late fifteenth century, with numerous Latin and vernacular editions across Italy and France. The Venetian edition of 1583, printed by Altobello Salicato, fits into the mature phase of the work’s reception, when the text continued to be read and discussed despite early doubts about its authenticity. The choice of Venice as a publishing center ensured broad diffusion in the Italian book market.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU / OPAC SBN
WorldCat
Bibliothèque nationale de France
A. Grafton, Forgers and Critics
E. Garin, Medioevo e Rinascimento
Studi su Annio da Viterbo e la pseudo-storiografia rinascimentale