Nicetas Choniates; Wolfio, Hieronymo [Oetingensi interprete]. Nicetae Acominati Choniatae, magni logothetae secretorum, Inspectoris & Iudicis Veli, Praefecti sacri cubiculi : LXXXVI annorum historia, uidelicet ab anno restitutae Salutis circiter MCXVII, in quo Zonaras desinit, usque ad annum MCCIII, Libris XIX descripta, quorum hic ordo est:…&c. Basileae: Ioannem Oporinum, 1557. First Edition. [11689]
Blind stamped pigskin binding, soiled and worn with both top corners worn through, top board a bit bowed, front joint partly cracked yet holding well. Text block is 37.5 x 25.5 cm (14 3/4 x 10 inches); notations in brown ink on the ffep, signature or other clipped from the ffep, top corner torn with some loss; oval institutional library ink stamp on tp & ffep. Tp with printer’s device. a-a4. a-z6. A-G7; k3 bound out of order. Collated and complete. Pages are [viii], [1]-112, 115-116, 113-114, 117-317, [45 unnumbered pp.]. Large printer’s emblem on the final page. Damp stain in bottom corner margin, generally faint. Good. Hardcover.
I Liber de rebus gestis Ioannis Comneni, Alexij filij, quem uulgò Caloioannem uovant.
VII Libri de rebus gestis Manuelis Comneni, filij Ioannis.
I Liber de Alexio Porphyrogenito, Manuelis Comneni filio.
II Libri de rebus gestis Andronici Comneni.
III Libri de Imperio Isaacij Angeli Comneni.
III Libri de Imperio Alexij Angeli Comneni, post fratrem Isaacium caecatum & eiectum.
I Liber de Isaacio, & filio eius Alexio, post recuperatum, Germanorum & Venetorum ope, Imperium: in quo etiam de Alexio Duca cognomento Murzuflo, seu supercilioso, & confusione status publici, & Constantinopolitano excidio agitur.
I Liber de initijs Imperij Balduini & Herrici fratrum, Flandriae Comitum.
Opus lectu iucundum et utile nunc primùm liberalitate Magnifici et Generosi uiri D. Antonii Fvggeri, etc. Caesareae Maiestati à consilijs, etc. Graecè Latineq[ue] editum, cum Indice copioso Latinoi rerum, et Graeco uerborum et phrasium aliquot: unà cum uarijs lectionibus, ex trium codicum laboriosa sese collatione. Hieronymo VVolfio Oetingensi interprete.
Printed in two columns, medieval Greek on one side with the Latin translation on the other.
“Shortly before the fall of the Comniene dynasty, Nicetas of Chone [in Phrygia, the old Colossae of St. Paul (Gibbon)] enjoyed the highest honors of the court, his very instructive history is, equally valuable for its honest veracity, & attractive by the warm attachment of its author to his sinking country.” - Von Müller.” - written in brown ink on the ffep.
Akominatos Nicetas, or Nicetas Choniates (1155-1217), b. Chonae, Byzantine Empire [now Turkey]; d. Nicaea, Empire of Nicaea [now Iznik, Turkey]. He was a Byzantine statesman, historian, and theologian. “His chronicles of Byzantium’s humiliations during the Third and Fourth Crusades (1189 and 1204) and his 12th-century theological writings constitute authoritative historical sources for this period and established him among the most brilliant medieval Greek historiographers…A fervent Greek Byzantine nationalist, Nicetas produced a generally objective and concrete, although rhetorical, account of the Crusaders’ campaigns in Byzantium.” - Encyclopedia Britannica online.
The scarce first edition of this history of the Eastern Roman Empire from 1118 to 1207, written by a Nicetas Choniates, Greek Byzantine official with close ties to the Royal Court. This edition was translated by Hieronymus Wolf (1516-1580), a German historian who coined the term “Byzantine Empire” to describe the Eastern Roman Empire. Wolf taught himself Greek and was instrumental in making Greek texts available to humanist scholars at the beginning of the Reformation. It was the beginning of an intellectual effort to bring Greek history to the Latin reader.
