8vo. 2 parts in 1 volume. (XVI),385,(36 index),(1 blank); 639,(23 index) p. Modern half vellum. 16 cm (Ref: VD17 3:006921C & VD17 3:006920V) (Details: Boards marbled. Woodcut printer's mark on both titles, depicting the head of the goddess Athena in profile, the motto is 'Scientia immutabilis'. Occasional woodcut initials) (Condition: Vellum at the head of the spine stained. Small stamp on the verso of the title. Paper yellowing) (Note: The French scholar Dionysius Gothofredus, or Denis Godefroy, 1549-1622, is best known as the editor of the monumental 'Corpus iuris civilis', Lyon 1583, an edition with commentary of the complete collection of fundamental works in Roman jurisprudence (Digest, Institutions, Codex, Novellae) issued on order of the emperor Justinian at the beginning of the sixth century. Gothofredus' edition made history. He did not only coin the title 'Corpus Juris Civilis', but it was issued more than 50 times, with or without commentary and glossae. Gothofredus studied law at Louvain, Cologne, and Heidelberg, and then returned to Paris, his hometown, to work as a solicitor. But being protestant he had however to leave France in 1579, escaping civil war and persecution, and fled to Geneva. There he was professor of Roman law for the next ten years. In 1589 he was called back by king Henry IV, but the next year he had to flee the country again. His house and library were plundered. In 1590 he took refuge in Basle. In 1591 he accepted a professorship of Roman law in Strassburg. From there he moved in 1604 to the university of Heidelberg, where he became head of the faculty of law. Gothofredus also worked on classical authors such as Cicero and Seneca and the ancient grammarians, and on ancient history. Gothofredus wrote the dedication and the preface of the first edition of the 'Antiquae Historiae ex XXVII authoribus contextae' during his stay in Basel in 1590, short after his escape from France. It was reissued in Lyon in 1591. An third reissue was published in 1604 in Strassburg. In the preface, dated Basel 1590, Gothofredus explains that he offers here the 'studiosi' this collection of texts of Roman historians, to help them to acquire knowledge of the history of Rome from the sources, and not from a pond ten times removed from its source. ('Hoc enim opere, primum antiquos authores selegi, ut studiosi ex antiquis, non ex decima lacuna cognitionem historiarum haurirent'. (page *5 recto) He presents also a list of 27 historians from whose work he drew, from Berosus and Manetho to Paulus Diaconus and the Suda. He organizes their works chronologically in six books, 1: on Italy before Rome, 2: Rome and her kings, 3: the consuls, 4: Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar till ca. 800, 5: Constantinople till 1453, 6: and on the medieval emperors of France and Germany. Book 4, on the Roman emperors is by far the longest, 480 pages. For instance, when he deals with Julius Caesar Gothofredus prints texts of Livy, Florus, Eutropius, Aurelius Victor. The last 2 books (after 800) are short and rather sketchy. Gothofredus doesnot use Tacitus, Sallustius, Suetonius, Historia Augusta , or Ammianus Marcellinus. The 1590 edition is rather common, this edition of 1604 however seems rather rare. In KvK we found only a few copies) (Provenance: On the verso of the title a stamp: 'Hermann Funke'. 'Hermann Funke, 1938-2015, war ein deutscher Klassischer Philologe. Hermann Funke studierte Klassische Philologie an der Universität zu Köln und wurde dort 1963 mit der Dissertation Die sogenannte tragische Schuld: Studie zur Rechtsidee in der griechischen Tragödie promoviert. Von 1964 bis 1968 arbeitete er am Franz Joseph Dölger-Institut der Universität Bonn, anschließend als Assistent an der Universität Mannheim. Nach einem Forschungsaufenthalt am Center for Hellenic Studies der Harvard University (1971/1972) habilitierte er sich 1974 mit der Schrift Allegorie und Dichtererklärung: Studien zur poetischen Hermeneutik in der Antike (unveröffentlicht). 1978 wurde er zum außerplanmäßigen Professor ernannt. Seit 2003 war er im Ruhestand'. (Source Wikipedia)) (Collation: Part 1: )(8, A-2C8, 2D4 (leaf 2D4 and the verso of leaf 2D3 blank) Part 2: 2E-3Y8, 3Z4 (minus the blank leaf 3Z4)) (Photographs on request)