1524 De Bello Judaico, Hegesippi (Hegesippus)

An ancient history of the Jewish wars against Rome, incorporating Josephus' account, among others. This edition was published in Paris in 1524.

Authorship is quite controversial. All seem to agree that there was a Hegesippus, but there is argument whether he put together this history of the Jewish wars, or (in true Darwinian thought) ancients didn't know how to spell and simpy bastardized Josephus' name. Older generations gave more credence to Hegesippus having his hand in the development of this work, hence his name in the title of this printing.

Regardless, this ancient work used Josephus' writings, and other (near) contemporary passages, to draw a picture of the Jewish wars.

Conspiracists believe Rome edited this work, to suppress the Jews intellectually (since the Jews lost the wars with Rome; which, in this theory, means they would read of the historic loss and be less apt to rebel again... I think this theory is silly).

This is the second edition of the work, after its 1510 editio princeps (first ever printing). It is a reprint of the editio princeps, with some minor layout changes.

Following the printing of De Excidio (as it was also known), on leaf LXXI is Anacephalaeosis, an ancient summary of the work, sometimes attributed to St. Ambrose.

The last two pages contain a table comparing Josephus' timeline to this work, composed by Michael Humelbergius.

About the Printer -

Jodocus Badius was a pioneer of the printing industry, a renowned grammarian and a pedagogue. He established his printing house in Paris in 1503.

About the Book -

Universal Short Title Catalogue number 180971. Four copies listed, two in Canada and two in France.

Pettegree, Walsby and Wilkinson: French Vernacular Books, Books published in the French Language before 1601 reference 73567.

Worldcat records several other copies: OCLC number 588897219 at California State Library of Sacramento, OCLC number 3266117 at Wichita State University, Hebrew Union College and Harvard Library

Interesting, the 3266117 states that title page border and title style were stolen from the Ragazzo 1491 printing of Plutarch.

Physical Attributes -

Book measures approx. 27.5 x 20 x 1.5 cm. Quarto, but signed in eight. Cloth hardcover, with shagreen spine and corners. Title written on spine in manuscript. Decorative border to the title page. Press printer's mark. Decorated initials.

Pages - LXXXVI4

Collation - A-K8, L6

Condition -

See pictures. Simple modern binding with some wear, thumbing, etc. Title page worn, with a few small holes around the edges. "1524" written at bottom of title page, trimmed. Two rust spots on title page. Book is toned throughout, with occasional fox spot, thumb, dog-eared page, page edge tear/chip, candle ember, etc.. Chip near bottom corner of last leaf, no text affected. Nice wide margins.