Josephus Flavius (ca. 37-after 100) was an important Jewish historian and one of the chief representatives of Jewish-Hellenistic literature. Born in Jerusalem into an aristocratic, priestly family, he would go on to become a commander of rebel troops in the Galilee during the Jewish Revolt. After surrendering to the Romans, he endeared himself to the imperial court and received Emperor Vespasian’s patronage. In Rome, he composed four major works:
Antiquities of the Jews,
The Life of Flavius Josephus,
Wars of the Jews, and
Against Apion. The present lot is an early American edition of these books, translated into English by the theologian and mathematician William Whiston (1667-1752), in a lovely contemporary binding possibly by John Roulston of Boston.
Provenance
Richard R. Parry (armorial bookplate on front pastedowns, signatures on title pages, paper tickets on spines, stamp on vol. 1: title and p. 107)