Rerum gestarum libri XVIII, à decimoquarto ad trigesimum primum. nam XIII priores desiderantur. Quanto vero castigatior hic scriptor nunc prodeat, ex Hieronymi Frobenij epistola, quam hac de causa addidimus, cognosces.

With woodcut printer's device on title, capital spaces with guide letters. Printed in Italics. 513 pp. Small 8vo. 18th-century calf, spine with red label gilt. From the collection of Hendrik D. L. Vervliet. Paris, Robert Estienne, 1544. The Roman history by Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 325/330-after 391), published by the French scholar and printer Robert Estienne (1503-1544), who is known for the elegance and accuracy of his books. Originally composed of 31 books, it comprises only 18 books (the first 13 having been lost) and covers the period from 353 to 378 (the battle of Adrianople). It is considered valuable for being a clear, comprehensive and impartial account of the events. Gibbons judged the author as "an accurate and faithful guide, who composed the history of his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary". In Ammianus' description of the Empire, especially the economic problems, an explanation for the sack of Rome only twenty years after his death becomes apparent. The present edition has a preface by Hieronymus Froben, dated Basel 1533 and contains the 31st book which was not included in Froben's edition. - Copious marginalia (slightly trimmed) and underlinings in a neat contemporary hand. - Index aurel. 104.839; Adams A-972; Ebert I, 526; Renouard (Estienne) 61, 17. Not in STC (French). HISTORY (KULTURGESCHICHTE) ;