Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, in the Latin translation of Rufinus of Aquileia, manuscript on vellum [Germany, eleventh or early twelfth century]

single leaf, 260mm. by 190mm., remains of 2 columns, 33 lines in an angular early gothic hand, red running title at head (‘Liber’ / ‘XVII’), "No 10" in early twentieth-century hand at head, reused on a later binding and so with painted stripe along what was spine of volume on verso, stains, scuffs, trimmed at outermost vertical edge with two thirds of one column cut away and missing some lines from base, overall fair and presentable condition

Josephus (more properly Titus Flavius Josephus or Joseph ben Matityahu; 37-c.100) was a first-century Roman-Jewish scholar and historian from Judea. He fought against the Romans during the First Jewish-Roman War as commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee, but was forced to surrender in 67 to Vespasian, and was enslaved, serving his court as an interpreter. After Vespasian became emperor, he freed Josephus and gave him Roman citizenship, and he remained, advising Vespasian’s heir Titus during the Siege of Jerusalem and the looting and destruction of the Second Temple.

He is a crucial witness to this period of Jewish history and the background of early Christianity, outlining in the present work (composed c.94) the course of Jewish history from creation to his present, and expounding Jewish law and customs. The work contains two passages about Christ, which may be the only extra-Biblical record of his life. In the mid-fourth century, it was translated into Latin by Rufinus of Aquileia. The present fragment includes parts of book XVII:6, discussing the judgment by Herod the Great and Quintilus Varus, ruler of Syria, of Herod’s own son, Antipater, to death.