Diodorus Siculus. Bibliothekes istorikes... [graece]...Bibliothecae historicae libri quindecim de quadraginta, Greek text, title with woodcut printer's device, woodcut initials, hole to inner margin of a5 with loss of a few letters, small ink stain to a6 and a couple of other leaves, light water-staining towards end, large engraved bookplate of Nicolas-Joseph Foucault, later calf with triple gilt fillet, spine gilt with morocco label, rubbed, corners bumped, [Adams D472; Bibliotheca Fictiva 9; Renouard 11; Schreiber 147 "a beautifully printed and impressive volume"], folio, [Geneva], Henri Estienne, 1559.
⁂ Editio princeps of most of the Greek text of Diodorus of Sicily's world history namely books 1-5 (represented as 1-6 in early editions as 1 is in two parts) and 11-15, books 16-20 only having been published by Operinus in 1539. Contains many traditional forgeries, including Ctesias, and (in book 5) an account of the lost Historia Sacra of Euhemerus (c. 300 BC), with its "mythographic" but elaborately detailed descriptions of imaginary islands in the lower Red Sea.
Nicolas-Joseph Foucault, 1st Marquis de Magny (1643-1721), statesman and book-collector.
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