Dio Cassius, Historiae, Paris, 1551, red morocco gilt by Ridge of Grantham, Syston Park-Gennadius copy

Dio Cassius

Ρομαικων ιστοριων... Rerum Romanarum a Pompeio Magno ad Alexandrum Mamaeae, epitome authore Ioanne Xiphilino. Paris: Robert Estienne, 1551

4to (232 x 161mm.), woodcut printer's device on title-page, text in Greek, woodcut initials and headpieces, manuscript annotations (some mentioning later editors such as Leunclavius and Spondanus), nineteenth-century straight grained red morocco gilt by S. Ridge of Grantham (with his ticket), spine gilt in compartments, red edges, head of first few leaves slightly soiled, extremities slightly rubbed

First edition of the epitome of Xiphilinus, a monk in Byzantium in the eleventh century, and prepared at the behest of the Emperor Michael Doukas. Estienne had previously printed part of the Greek text in 1548 (books 36-60 only).

LITERATURE:

USTC 150860; Schreiber, Estienne 108

PROVENANCE:

Sir John Hayford Thorold, Syston Park bookplate, sale, Sotheby's, 20 December 1884 (lot 2107 is a copy of this work but described as "in old gilt brown morocco", subsequently lot 1013 in the Gennadius sale); John Gennadius, sale, Sotheby's, 1 April 1895, lot 1012