12mo. 333,(3) p. 19th century calf. 13 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 852876300; Willems 1207; 1526; Rahir 1233; Brunet 5,322; cf. Graesse 6/1,376; Ebert 21999; Schoenemann 2,391) (Details: Nice binding. Back with 4 raised bands. Engraved title, depicting Martinus of Tours on horseback ready to cut his cloak in two for a beggar) (Condition: Binding slightly worn. Bookplate on the front pastedown. Paper slightly yellowing) (Note: The Latin historian Sulpicius (or Sulpitius) Severus was born in Aquitania ca. 360 A.D. He organized under the influence of Bishop Martinus of Tours a sort of monastic life on his own estate for himself and his friends. His extant works are a vita S. Martini Turonensis, 'which is an apology for ascetism'; and this Sacrae Historiae, a kind of universal chronicle to A.D. 402, 'which is an important source for the history of 4th-century events, (...). The whole book is an interesting attempt to present a 'breviarium' of history from the Christian point of view: it uses Christian chronographers, especially St. Jerome, but also Pagan writers. J. Bernays suggested that for the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D 70 Sulpicius followed the lost account of Tacitus. Sallust and Tacitus are his models in the matter of style'. (OCD, 2nd 3d. p. 983) After the text of the Sacrae Historiae follows the Continuation written by the humanist Johannes Sleidanus, 1507-1556, taken from his De quattuor summis imperiis. This treatise of 90 pages deals with the history of the chruch in the Middle Ages until Charles V. After the Continuatio follow three letters on Saint Martin's miracles and death, and three dialogues of Sulpicius Severus which compare Saint Martin's feats and virtues with those of the Egyptian hermits. § This Sulpicius edition is a line by line reissue of the Elzevier edition of 1643. Texts of Sulpicius were apparantly in demand, for the Elzeviers of Leiden and Amsterdam produced three editions of the Sacrae Historiae (1626, 1635 & 1643) and four editions of Sulpicius' Opera (1635, 1643, 1656 & 1665) (Provenance: Armorial bookplate on the front pastedown. Underneath this bookplate a label: 'Ex libris Gulielmi Gaskell Rouse A.M., Ex Aede Christi; Oxon., Anno 1861'. 'William Gaskell Rouse was born c. 1827 in Old Windsor, Berkshire. He appears in the 1871 Census, aged 44, a Church of England Clergyman, living with his wife, Gertrude, aged 34, in Offley, Hertfordshire with three servants. Gertrude was born in St Kitts, West Indies, and her maiden name was Gertrude Maria Grace Payne daughter of Charles Gillies Payne and Mary Elizabeth Salusbury. William died in 1871'. Rouse studied in Eton and Christ Church Oxford. (See the site gaskellfamily((com)) ) § The armorial bookplate bears the motto: 'Omne bonum Dei donum', 'Every good is the gift of God'. On the shield are placed in horizontal bars two birds and a rosette. Upon the shield rests a bust of what looks like a bearded Greek philosopher) (Collation: A-O12) (Photographs on request)