Josephus (Flavius) Opera, collation: *⁶, a-z⁶, A-Z⁶, aa-hh⁶, ii⁴, kk-zz⁶, AA-MM^6, [12], 967, [1] pp., title in red and black with woodcut printer's device in red, device repeated in black on fol. MM6v, large woodcut animated initial on fol. *2r, woodcut headpieces in different patterns, blank spaces for capitals with printed guide letters, overall a very good copy, title soiled to fore-margin, small repairs to outer blank margin of first and last three leaves, small stains, browning in places, a few underlinings and marginal notes in an early hand, pencilled bibliographic notes on front pastedown, on recto of rear flyleaf note 'early princeps', in a 19th-century hand, contemporary German calf over wooden beveled boards, covers blind tooled in different panel designs, upper cover framed within concentric candelabra and head-rolls, at centre five unidentified armorial tools, lower cover framed within head-roll, central space divided into four smaller panels decorated with head-roll, clasps missing, spine with four large raised bands, rebacked, small portions of leather lacking, folio, 334 x 220mm., Basle, Hieronymus Froben and Nikolaus Episcopius, 1544.

⁂ Editio princeps of Josephus' works, providing a comprehensive history of the Jews from the Creation to the end of the war with Rome (70 AD), in a contemporary German binding. This first edition in the original Greek derives from manuscripts owned by Diego Hurtado Mendoza (1503-75), the envoy of Charles V in Venice, and was edited by his librarian, the Dutch humanist Arnoldus Arlenius (1510-1582). The text was set in the fine Greek type used by Johann Frober for printing the Erasmus edition of the New Testament in 1516, strongly influenced by the third Greek Aldine font.

Provenance: The Dominican monastery of Woodchester (Southern England), established in 1851 (ex-libris tipped in at rear).

Literature: Adams J 351; VD16, J955; STC German 463.