4to. 2 volumes in 1: (XX),375,(1 blank),(55)(1 blank); 576,34,(2 blank) p. Overlapping vellum (Ref: Schweiger 2,384; Sandys 2,209; Fabricius/Ernesti. 'Bibliotheca Latina' 3,101/02; NP Suppl. 2, p. 298; Graesse 3,303; Ebert 9827) (Details: 6 thongs laced through the joints. 2 titles, the first is in red and black, the title of the second part is black only. Woodcut printer's mark on the title, a thisle within an oval banner a French and Latin motto, reading: 'Nul ne s'y frote' and 'patere aut abstine', 'let no one meddle', and 'bear of forebear'. 1 text engraving) (Condition: Vellum age-toned. One of the thongs gone. Endpapers renewed, probably in the 19th century before 1879. Some slight foxing. Right lower corner partly and lightly waterstained) (Note: This collection of biographies of Roman emperors, Caesars and usupers was published for the first time in Milan in 1475. It formed part of a bigger collection of historical texts. It was preceded by 'De XII Caesaribus' of Suetonius, and followed by work of the late antique historians Eutropius and Paulus Diaconus. The French classical scholar Isaac Casaubon, or Isaacus Casaubonus, was the first to publish the biographies written by otherwise unknown authors Aelianus Spartianus, Iulius Capitolinus, Aelius Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio & Flavius Vopiscus, separately in 1603, under the title of 'Historiae Augustae Scriptores Sex'. The first part contains the text, the second the exhaustive commentary of Casaubon. The 30 surviving biographies in this collection were probably written between 293 and 330 A.D. They cover the period from Hadrian to Carinus (roughly 117-284/85). The beginning of the collection seems to be lost, and the original title is unknown. It seems obvious that the biographies written by Suetonius, sometime after 100 A.D., are the example for these 'vitae' of later emperors. The collection is one of the most debated and controversial sources for the history of the Roman emperors. The historic value of the 30 biographies is diverse, some seem to be trustworthy and offer useful information, others seem to be fiction, full of wondrous tales, anecdotes and short stories. Some tend to having been written in the tradition of the ancient novel. The obvious falsification of sources and documents rendered the entire collection suspect. Such caution and some of these observations and were already made by Casaubon. 'He revealed some of their inconsistencies and improbable statements. He used considerations of style and content to argue that the works ascribed in the manuscripts to Aelius Spartianus, Aelius Lampridius and Julius Capitolinus could more plausibly be ascribed to a single author. He showed that the collection had been edited and revised, though the job had been done by an incompetent. He denied that the date or purpose of the revision could be precisely fixed: 'Only a prophet could divine what moved the maker of this collection to arrange it in this form'. (A. Grafton, Defenders of the text, Cambr. Mass. 1991, p. 148) Nowadays it is believed by most scholars that the collected biographies had only one author, writing for the Roman senatorial aristocracy. 'Generell wird die Geschichte des 2. und 3. Jahrhundert aus dem Blickwinkel der nichtchristlichen stadtrömischen Senatsaristokratie betrachtet und das Kaisertum nach dem Verhalten zu diesem Stand bewertet'. Some believe that the biographies are propaganda for the Roman emperor Julianus Apostata, and his pagan revival ca. 360. The Dutch version of Wikipedia refers to the interesting theory of the historian Jona Lendering, stipulating that the collection is an amusing mockumentary, meant to show that christianity was a un-Roman ideology. Nowadays the collection of the 'Scriptores Historiae Augustae' is referred to as the 'Historia Augusta', and used with care by ancient historians. (Source NP 5, 637/40)) (Provenance: Illegible name on the verso of the front flyleaf, dated 1879) (Collation: â4, ê4, î2, A-3H4; A-4G4, 4H2 (leaf 4H2 blank) (Photographs on request) (Heavy book, may require extra shipping costs)