Flavio Giuseppe - Flavii Iosephi Operum - 1557

Flavius Josephus Opera – Tomus Primus - Sixteenth-century edition (1557) of great historical interest.

Pocket volume (12 x 7 cm), 695 pages, (9 blanks), printed in Lyon (Lugduni) in 1557 by Antonius Vincentius. Contemporary full parchment binding, spine with handwritten title on a label; genuine specimen, with physiological signs of use and of the time but overall well preserved.

Work by Flavius Josephus, a fundamental figure for the knowledge of the Jewish and Roman world of the I century. The volume contains the main historical writings, including the Antiquitates Judaicae (partly or fully in the editions of the period), which narrate the history of the Jewish people from origins to the Roman era, offering an indispensable source also for the study of the origins of Christianity. Latin text, humanistic translation (Sigismundus Gelenius), with woodcut initials and printer’s mark on the half-title; ex libris of Iacopo Massimiliano Collalto, a notable collectible element that increases the interest of the specimen.

Fifteenth- or sixteenth-century edition of a classic of ancient historiography, always sought after on the antiquarian market; pocket-size format complete, with noble provenance. A significant witness to the humanistic diffusion of Josephus’s works, not common in authentic condition as in the present specimen.