Appianus Alexandrinus (fl. c. 160 AD).

Hieronymus Querinus (Girolamo Querini), Patriarch of Venice from 1524 to 1554, and member of a distinguished Venetian family, and Hieronymus Tarvisinus (Girolamo of Treviso), inscription on a2 of part 2; J.W. Pease, bookplate; Howard Pease, bookplate; W.R.H.J[eudwine], booklabel, sale at Bloomsbury Book Auctions, 18 September 1984, lot 2, £2,700, Charles W. Traylen, Guildford, Surrey, for Lord Wardington; Christopher William Beaumont Pease, bookplate

first edition, and a handsome copy with wide, clean margins.

The Roman History of Appian was written in Greek in the second half of the second century AD, and has come down to us only in part, some sections only being preserved by Photius and others, in particular those books dealing with the period of the Roman civil wars from 146BC onwards, which survive in toto, and which have some importance. In the sixteenth century there were many editions, including a notable Estienne one of the Greek text, and various translations, including various editions of the Italian version and one into English, which Shakespeare certainly knew and used for Antony and Cleopatra. This translation by Pier Candido Decembrio (1399-1477?), a noted humanist and civil servant to the Visconti duke of Milan, is dedicated to Pope Nicholas V, and is known in manuscript copies as well as in its printed form.

Both copies of this edition in the Bodleian catalogue have the woodcut borders printed in red, and not in black as here.