Very rare first Dutch translation of the famous history of the church by the great historian Eusebius (270-338), from the Arenberg collection. The Historia ecclesiastica is the earliest history of the Christian church. Divided in ten books, it gives a clear survey of the first three centuries. This turbulent period, in which the Church changed from an unorthodox, marginal society with a loose structure to a firmly established institution with fixed dogmas and a hierarchic structure, was not easy to describe as the annals were sparse. Eusebius succeeded in transforming the scattered information into a coherent historical account, rejecting anything doubtful or fabulous.
Eusebius wrote his text in Greek, before 326. The present Dutch edition, however, was translated after the Latin translation by Tyrannius Rufinus (ca. 340-410), which was first published in Rome, 1474. Rufinus made a rather free translation, and added two books carrying the narrative down to the death of Theodosius the Great in 395. The popular work was translated into multiple languages in the 16th century. The present first Dutch translation is very scarce, as we have not been able to trace any other copies in sales records of the past hundred years.
The vellum is somewhat soiled. The title page and final blank are somewhat browned, occasionally water stained. Otherwise in good condition. Machiels E-763; Nijhoff & Kronenberg 883; STCV 12925229; USTC 407374; WorldCat 558777084, 67204893, 69053134 (5 copies); not in Adams.