Dionis Cassii Nicaei - Romanae Historiae - 1559

THE INQUISITION AGAINST XYLANDER: DIONE CASSIUS IN THE CENSER'S COPY
On the verso of the title page there is preserved a precious handwritten annotation by the censor, drawn up in Salamanca on July 5, 1615, which officially documents the censorial intervention.
Fascinating copy of the famous Lyon edition of Cassius Dio's Roman History, printed by Guillaume Rouillé in 1559 in the Latin translation by the German humanist Wilhelm Xylander (1532-1576). This copy has a completely particular history: the first fourteen preliminary leaves were deliberately removed by an ecclesiastical censor because they contained Xylander’s preface, the author being a Protestant deemed heretical by the Catholic Church. The volume thus becomes not only a rare testimony to the Renaissance fortune of Cassius Dio, but also an important material document of the inquisitorial censorship exercised on humanist books during the Counter-Reformation.
MARKET VALUE
The sixteenth-century editions of Cassius Dio printed by Guillaume Rouillé are consistently in demand on the antiquarian market for the importance of the text and the high quality of the Lyon workshop’s productions. Complete copies in contemporary bindings typically range between €400 and €600. Specimens with a documented history of inquisitorial censorship, accompanied by contemporaneous manuscript annotations by the censor, show markedly higher collecting interest, as they belong to the small group of books that retain the physical traces of the application of the Index of Prohibited Books.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Ancient full parchment binding restored, with manuscript title on the spine "Dionis Cassii Nicaei". Title page with Rouillé’s typographic mark depicting the eagle on the globe between serpents and the placement stamp. On the verso of the title page is a handwritten censorship note dated Salamanca, July 5, 1615, attesting to the expurgation of the work. All preliminary leaves up to page 29 are missing, removed in antiquity to eliminate Xylander’s preface, deemed heretical. Woodcut initials and typographic ornaments. Some browning and physiological foxing. Rear board with some losses. In old books with a multi-century history, additional imperfections may be present that are not always evident in the description. Pp. 884; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Dionis Cassii Nicaei Romanae Historiae Libri XXV. Nimirm a XXXVI ad LXI.
Lugduni, Apud Gulielmum Rouillium, sub scuto Veneto, 1559.
Dion Cassius Nicaeus.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
This copy constitutes a significant testimony to the book censorship exercised by the Catholic Church during the Counter-Reformation. The work was printed in the Latin translation by Wilhelm Xylander, one of the leading German philologists of the 16th century and a convinced supporter of the Protestant Reformation. His prefaces and his humanist writings were regarded with suspicion by the Spanish ecclesiastical authorities and ended up on the Index of Forbidden Authors. To permit the circulation of the work without destroying it entirely, censors often used expurgation, physically removing only the passages deemed dangerous. In this exemplar all preliminary leaves containing Xylander’s preface were carefully removed, while the text of Cassius Dio was preserved in full. The handwritten note added in Salamanca on July 5, 1615 officially certifies the censorship and turns the volume into a direct historical source on the functioning of the Spanish Inquisition and on the concrete application of the expurgatory Indices. The work of Cassius Dio remained perfectly orthodox; what was unacceptable was solely the scientific authority of the Protestant translator. Few books show so clearly how censorship in the early modern period physically intervened on the body of the volume, altering its physical structure without completely impeding reading.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Cassius Dio Cocceianus was born in Nicea of Bithynia around 155 CE and died after 229 CE. Senator, governor and Roman consul, he composed the monumental Historia Romana in eighty books, one of the main sources for the history of the Republic and the Empire. Thanks to his position in the imperial institutions, he was able to consult official documents today lost, making his work indispensable for the reconstruction of Roman history. The Latin translator, Wilhelm Xylander (1532-1576), was one of the leading German humanists of the Renaissance. Professor at the University of Heidelberg, he translated numerous Greek authors, including Plutarch, Strabo, Dione Cassius and Marcus Aurelius, contributing decisively to the diffusion of classical culture in 16th-century Europe. His adherence to the Protestant Reformation, however, made his prefaces and critical apparatus objects of Catholic censorship.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The edition was printed in 1559 by Guillaume Rouillé (1518-1589), among the most prestigious European publishers of the Renaissance. His Lyon workshop was renowned for its typographic excellence and for publishing the main classical and humanist texts destined for the international market. Xylander’s translation quickly became the leading Latin text of reference for reading Cassius Dio in 16th- and 17th-century Europe. After the publication of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum and the Spanish Indices Expurgatorii, many copies destined for Catholic territories were subjected to material censorship by removing the translator’s prefaces, dedications or other writings attributed to the Protestant translator. Copies that preserve the censor’s official annotations today constitute precious testimonies to the controlled circulation of the humanist book in Counter-Reformation Europe.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
USTC – Universal Short Title Catalogue, edition Lugduni, Guillaume Rouillé, 1559.
Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, 1501-1600, entry Dio Cassius.
Brunet, Manuel du Libraire et de l'Amateur de Livres, entry Dio Cassius.
Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares et Précieux, II, entry Dio Cassius.
Renouard, Bibliographie des éditions de Guillaume Rouillé.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, catalogs of Lyon editions of the XVIth century.
WorldCat, bibliographic entries of Rouillé's 1559 edition.