Histoire des Juifs. Histoire de la guerre des Juifs contre les Romains

5 volumes in-12 of I/ 14 leaves, 500 pages, 5 leaves, 6 illustrations; II/ 509 pages, 9 leaves; III/ 398 pages, 43 leaves; IV/ 15 leaves, LXVI pages, 4 leaves, 368 pages, 8 leaves; V/ 550 pages, 19 leaves.
Midnight blue morocco, triple filet border on the boards, raised bands on spine, decorated compartments, roll-tooling on edges, red morocco doublure adorned with a beautiful “à la fanfare” design, gilt edges. Sumptuous morocco doublé binding in the fanfare style, attributable to Gilles Dubois, active from 1648 to 1689.

150 x 85 mm.

Flavius Josephus (37-100). History of the Jews. History of the Jewish War against the Romans by Flavius Josephus. And his life written by himself. Written by Flavius Josephus under the title Antiquities of the Jews, translated […] by Monsieur Arnauld d’Andilly.
Paris, Pierre le Petit, 1668.

First duodecimo edition of this famous work by Flavius Josephus.

“This translation first appeared in Paris in 1667 and 1668 in 2 folio volumes, Pierre Le Petit. The same bookseller also published, in 1668, a beautiful edition in 5 duodecimo volumes (this one), which formed the basis for the Brussels edition of 1676” (Brunet, III, 572)

“This history ends in 66, on the eve of the Jewish War against the Romans recounted in his previous work.

The Antiquities, originally written in Aramaic and translated into Greek, are intended for a Greek and Roman audience to whom Josephus aimed to introduce the history and wisdom of the Jews; it is therefore fundamentally an apologetic work at a time when antiquity was synonymous with nobility.

The first ten books constitute a paraphrase of biblical history with some modifications, omissions, or additions. Some of these are due to the apologetic intention of the author who avoids problematic episodes (the story of Judah and Tamar, the golden calf), or miracle stories that might be unfavorably received by pagans (for example, he suggests a rational interpretation of the crossing of the Red Sea), while others derive from an oral tradition that forms an embryonic Midrash (Abraham teaches arithmetic and astronomy to the Egyptians; Moses’ victorious campaign in Ethiopia on behalf of the Pharaoh and Moses’ marriage to an Ethiopian princess). Although it contains material known elsewhere, this first part is interesting for those seeking to reconstruct the trends of Jewish homiletics and exegesis in the 1st century.

Where the Antiquities gain their full documentary value is from the periods Josephus himself saw as “contemporary history,” that is, after the Maccabean revolt. On the Hasmonean dynasty, the reign of Herod, and the period of the Roman procurators in Judea, he is our main and often only source. It is true that Josephus himself covered this period in The Jewish War, but it is presented much more fully in the Antiquities.

In Book XVIII (63-64), one can read a few lines known as the Testimonium Flavianum, to which the Antiquities, and perhaps all of Josephus’ work, owe their survival. It is the only testimony by a Jewish author of that time about Jesus. Its authenticity has been vigorously debated since the 16th century. Today, it is established that the passage was interpolated by a Christian hand in the 4th century. Based on a recently rediscovered medieval Arabic version, there is now a tendency to reduce it to the few “neutral” phrases that Josephus might genuinely have written, rather than rejecting it entirely, as some critics once did.” – Trans. Edition Ernest Leroux, 1920–1929. Ed. du Cerf, 1990, (Books I to III). M. H.-L.

A masterpiece of French “à la fanfare” binding from 1668.

Raphaël Esmérian (Second part, December 8, 1972) brought together several masterpieces of French 17th-century binding, but none matched the fineness of the tools on the doublure of this one. The doublure of no. 43, attributed to the Caumartin workshop, featured tools of similar design but much coarser execution, and only certain bindings from the Florimond Badier workshop, around 1668, approached the finesse of the present doublure (no. 30). But as R. Esmérian wrote, “Florimond Badier’s clientele was most distinguished: Louis XIV, Marie-Thérèse, La Grande Mademoiselle, Christine of France, etc…”

A masterpiece of 17th-century French binding adorning the famousHistory of the Jews by Flavius Josephus.