The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, sometimes shortened to Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. The six volumes cover, from 98 to 1590, the peak of the Roman Empire, the history of early Christianity, the emergence of the Roman State Church, the rise of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, the decline of the Roman Empire and the fall of Byzantium, as well as discussions on the ruins of Ancient Rome. Gibbon offers an explanation for the fall of the Roman Empire, a task made difficult by a lack of comprehensive written sources. According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions in large part due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens. He began an ongoing controversy about the role of Christianity, but he gave great weight to other causes of internal decline and to attacks from outside the Empire. Like other Enlightenment thinkers and British citizens of the age steeped in institutional anti-Catholicism, Gibbon held in contempt the Middle Ages as a priest-ridden, superstitious Dark Age. It was not until his own era, the "Age of Reason", with its emphasis on rational thought, it was believed, that human history could resume its progress. Volume I was published in 1776 and went through six printings. Volumes II and III were published in 1781;. volumes IV, V, and VI in 1788–1789. The original volumes were published in quarto sections, a common publishing practice of the time Only volume I being a second edition, volumes 2-6 first editions. pp. [xii], viii, [iv], 586, [ii], lxxxviii, [ii] errata; [x], 640, [ii] errata; [x], 640, [ii] errata; [ii], viii, [viii], 620; [iv], 684; [xii], 646, [lii] index and errata. Half title in volume one, portrait frontispiece engraved by John Hall after Sir Joshua Reynolds, three folding maps engraved by Thomas Kitchin. weight before packing 13.5 kg