Lot 08019

Διόδωρος Σικελιώτης / Diodorus of Sicily, “Διοδώρου του Σικελιώτου Βιβλιοθήκης Ιστορικής τα Σωζόμενα. Diodori Siculi Bibliothecae historicae libri qui supersunt”, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Jacobi Wetsteni, 1746. Folio, [38], 731, [7] + [4], 666, [112]. Complete in two (2) impressive Volumes. Engraved portrait of P. Wesseling and Impressive engraved title page. Title in red & black ink. Large printer’s devise on title page. Fine chapter ornaments & engraved initials.

Contemporary binding, full leather, marbled edges. Re-backed with additions along inner joints External wear along boards & extremities. Interior in very fine condition. Ex Libris label “Rev. R. G. L. Broune / Dulwich College” and ex-libris stamps “Ex Libris Colleggii Sei Petri Glasguae”

A monumental edition of Diodorus global history. 

The Sicilian Greek historian Diodorus Siculus of Agyrium, who was a contemporary of Caesar and Augustus, states, that he spent thirty years collecting material and writing the 40 books of his History of the World. His monumental universal history is arranged in three parts. The first covers mythic history up to the destruction of Troy, arranged geographically, describing regions around the world from Egypt, India and Arabia to Greece & Europe. The second covers the time from the Trojan War to the death of Alexander the Great. The third covers the period to about 60 BC.

The “editio princeps” of the ‘Bibliotheca’ was published in Basle in 1539. The current Amsterdam edition of 1746 of the Dutch/German scholar Peter Wesseling, with a Latin translation and a commentary, was long time considered to be authoritative.