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Primary source for the history of Byzantium, the 12th century in particular

NICETAS CHONIATES (ACOMINATUS) & Francesco SANSOVINO ed.
Della historia di Niceta Coniate delle cose dell'Imperio di Costantinopoli. Libri VII. Ne' quali si contengono I fatti de gl'Imperatori Greci, cominciando da Alessio Comneno doue lascia il Zonara, fin'all'anno MCCCCLVII nel qual fu presa quella Citta da Mahomet Secondo. Con le postille a suoi luoghi dinotanti le cose di maggiore importanza. Et con molte altre cose ulti & necassarie a lettori.

Woodcut printer's device, woodcut initials and woodcut headpieces.

Venice, Appresso Francesco Sansovino, 1562. 4to. Contemporary (?) boards with title in ms. on spine. Woodcut printer's device, woodcut initials and woodcut headpieces. (4), 111, (1 blank) lvs.

Early Italian translation of the chronicle by the Byzantine Greek statesman, historian, and theologian Nicetas Choniates (ca. 1150-1216), sometimes called Acominatus. He initially took up politics as a career and held several appointments under the Angelus emperors (amongst them that of Grand Logothete or chancellor) and was governor of the theme of Philippopolis at a critical period. After the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, he fled to Nicaea, where he settled at the court of the Nicaean emperor Theodoras Lascaris, and devoted himself to literature.
His chronicle of Byzantium's humiliations during the Third and Fourth Crusades (1189 and 1204) constitutes an authoritative historical source for the period from ca. 1118 till 1207, and established him among the most brilliant medieval Greek historiographers.
The last, increasingly disastrous, centuries of Byzantine history are recorded by a series of scholarly and interesting historians. Nicetas Choniates, a high imperial official, provides a surprisingly balanced eyewitness account of the siege and capture of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade (1202-04). The history is continued until the fall of Byzantium in 1457, partly by Francesco Sansovino (1521-1586). The chronicle was translated by Sebastiano Fausto da Longiano and edited by Sansovino.
Another edition appeared under the title: Historia degli Imperatori Greci, descritta de Niceta Accominato da Chone published by Gabriel Giolito, at Venice in 1569, which was translated by L. Dolce.

Good copy, with two onership's entries in ink on title: (1) 'Ex libris D. Bartol. Movoni'; (2) 'Hunc Bibl. P.P. Carmel. Discalceatorum Conventus S.M.G. Pa(ris...?)'- (Library stamp on title, some 'marginal waterstaining; some underlinings with red pencil in text; lacks the three lvs. with index at the beginning).

STC Italian p.464.

Related Subjects: 16th Century Classical Antiquity Turkey

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