DU FRESNE (DU CANGE), Charles (ed.)., Paschalion seu Chronicon Paschale a mundo condito ad Heraclii imperatoris annum vicesimum. Opus hactenus Fastorum Siculorum nomine laudatum, deinde Chronicae temporum epitomes, ac denique Chronici Alexandrini lemmate vulgatum: nunc tandem auctius et emendatius prodit, cum nova Latina versione & notis chronicis ac historicis, cura et studio Caroli du Fresne, D. du Cange., Typographia Regia (Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy), 1688

Folio, contemporary vellum binding with tan gilt-lettered leather label to spine, raised bands, embossed linear-geometric ornamentation to boards, pp. [2 blank + 20], LII, 614, [26 + 2 blank], containing: half title; title page; dedication to Louis XIV by Charles du Fresne; preface [dated “Lutetiae Parisiorum Kal. November. MDCLXXXVIII”]; “Chronicon Paschale”; “Selecta ad illustrationem”; half title: “Notae in Chronicon Paschale”; “Index ad Chronicon Paschale”, with elaborate copper-engraved printer’s colophon to title page and other allegorical ornamentation throughout volume, plus various charts and tables. Binding bumped and worn, label chipped with no loss of text, repair to pastedown; otherwise very good. VERY RARE. Chronicon Paschale (the Paschal or Easter Chronicle), also called Chronicum Alexandrinum, Constantinopolitanum or Fasti Siculi, is the conventional name of a 7th-century Greek Christian chronicle of the world. Its name comes from its system of chronology based on the Christian paschal cycle; its Greek author named it “Epitome of the ages from Adam the first man to the 20th year of the reign of the most August Heraclius”. This edition is edited and prefaced by the French philologist Charles du Fresne (1610-88), whom Edward Gibbon called “our sure and indefatigable guide in the Middle Ages and Byzantine history.” The edition is part of a larger project to compile and publish bilingual redactions of all the early histories of the Byzantine Empire, a vast undertaking begun in 1645 under the direction of the French Jesuit scholar Philippe Labbe and the auspices of Louis XIV. Text in Latin and Medieval Greek.