Folio. 2 volumes: (IV including portrait), XXIX,(1),768,(1 blank) p.; (VIII including portrait), p. 769-1708 (recte 1716 ); 2 portraits, of Fabricius & Reimarus; 1 plate. Contemporary gilt calf. 42 cm (Ref: Hoffmann 1,549; Brunet 2,712: 'Édit. la plus belle, la plus complète et la meilleure'; Moss 1,405/06: 'One of the most correct and valuable Greek works ever printed. The notes contain a treasure of erudition'; Dibdin 1,506/07; Ebert 6143; Graesse 2,393; Not yet in VD18) (Details: Back elaborately gilt, and with 7 raised bands. Red morocco shield in the second compartment. Boards with gilt borders and 2 gilt rectangles. Title printed in red and black. Beautiful full-page portrait of Fabricius after the first half title, engraved by Gustav Andreas Wolfgang, 1749. Big headpiece of 1/2 a page at the beginning of the dedication, designed and engraved by Christ. Fritzsch, showing a portrait of the dedicatee Cardinal Angelo Maria Quirini. Full-page portrait of Reimarus at the beginning of volume 2, also designed and engraved by Christ Fritzsch, 1751. Facsimile of a leaf from a Vatican Codex after leaf 5E4) (Condition: Bindings slightly scuffed. Head of the first volume somewhat chafed. Corners slightly bumped. The leather enclosed by the sides of the inner rectangle on the boards is affected by a colouring agent) (Note: Dio Cassius Cocceianus of Nicaea in Asia Minor was born ca. 164 A.D. He held several high state offices (twice consul). He wrote in Greek a Roman history (Rhômaikê Historia) in 80 books, from the founding of the city of Rome till 229 A.D, the year of his own second consulate. His work 'appears to be based on republican annalistic tradition, Livy, or Livy's sources (...), imperial annalistic tradition, and for contemporary events', the time of Marcus Aurelius and the Severian dynasty, 'his own high authority. Unreliably about republican institutions and conditions, from Caesar onwards he used his constitutional experience, at first colouring events with his ideas of imperial absolutism, (...) but later handling his material with full knowledge. Annalistic in arrangement (...) his narration concentrated on political aspects, in the manner of Thucydides, giving a rhetorical narrative in Atticist style'. (OCD 2nd ed. p. 345) § The 'editio princeps' of Cassius Dio was published in 1548 by Robertus Stephanus. The first Latin translation appeared ten years later in Basel, and was made by the German scholar Xylander, in German Wilhelm Holzman, professor of Greek at the University of Heidelberg. His gifted pupil Johannes Leunclavius, or Hans Loewenclau revised and augmented Xylander's translation, and had it published in 1592. Leunclavius added also a collection of critical notes of his own. This edition of 1750/1752 is the next important edition. It was begun by the German bibliographer and classical scholar Johannes Albertus Fabricius, 1668- 1736, whose notes cover the books 35/60. On his death his son-in-law Hermann Samuel Reimar, 1694-1768, professor of philosophy at Hamburg, completed the edition. Reimar carefully inspected all earlier editions, and consulted and collated some excellent manuscripts, and he incorporated the entire notes of the earlier commentators in it. The fragments of Dio Cassius were adopted from the 'Excerpta Peiresciana', collected and published by the French scholar Henri de Valois (1634). The first volume also contains the surviving fragments of the epitome of Dio that was compiled by the 11th century byzantine scholar Joannes Xiphilinus. The second volume contains the prefaces and observations of Robertus and Henricus Stephanus, Xylander, Sylburg and Leunclavius. Here we find also the critical and explanatory notes of Dutch professors Lambertus Bos, Tiberius Hemsterhuis and Peter Wesseling, and of other leading scholars) (Provenance: Bookplate of A. Pitlo on the verso of the half title, with a riddle. On the foreground an opened book, and in the background a fuming volcano, in between the motto 'Del pasat la remembransa e la fe de l'an que ven'. The Dutch jurist Adriaan Pitlo, 1901-1987, was for 30 years professor of private and notarial law. At the beginning of the thirties of the 20th century he spent 3 years with his wife in Naples. Of this time the said later: 'Ik geef het U ook te doen, om met uitzicht op de Vesuvius het Juristenblad te raadplegen!' (It is tough job, to consult the Jurist Journal, while enjoying the view of the Vesuvius') The bookplate obviously illustrates this anecdote full of melancholy. In the background we see the ever-fuming Vesuvius, and in front the opened Journal. The motto seems to reflect this mood) (See the site "Resources Huygens ING") (Collation: Volume 1: a-d4 (portrait after a1; leaf a4 signed a3); A-5D4 (leaf 5D4 verso blank). Volume 2: pi4 (portrait after leaf pi1; minus blank leaf p4); A-4F4, 4G4 (between leaf 4G2 and 4G3 an extra leaf, also signed 4G3, on which leaf the 'Apparatus ad Cassium Dionem' begins), 4H4-5E4 (Extra leaf, not signed, not paginated, with a specimen of a Vatican Codex after 5E4), 5F-5P4, (5P)4, 5Q-6B4, 6C2 (leaf 6C2 blank)) (Heavy set, may require extra shipping costs) (Photograph on request)