GREGORAS, Nikephorus; WOLF, Hieronymus; BOIVIN, Jean (de Villeneuve) (ed.); DU FRESNE (DU CANGE), Charles., Nikephorou tou Gregora Rhomaike historia. Nicephori Gregorae Byzantina historia. Tomus primus. Libri XI. ab Hier. Wolfio jampridem latini facti, & in lucem editi : iidem nunc auctiores & castigatiores quam antea. Tomus secundus. Libri XIII. nunc primum e codd. mss. eruti, & typis mandati. Ex his libros fere XI. latine vertit Joh. Boivin, Biblioth. Regiae Custos alter. Idem Codices contulit, Notas addidit, & alias Appendices., Typographia Regia (Jean Anisson), 1702

2 vols., folio, contemporary vellum binding with tan gilt-lettered labels to spines, raised bands, pp. [2f. blank + 74], 351, [1 + 2f. blank]; [2f. blank + 2], 352-806, [42 + 2f. blank], including: half title to “Tomus primus”; title page; dedication to Louis XIV by Jean Boivin; preface; “Nicephori Gregorae Vita. Opera. Elogia” (dedicated to Camille le Tellier de Louvois); preface (dedicated to Antonius Fuggerus) by Hieronymus Wolf; “Nicephori Gregorae Historiae Byzantinae”; half title to “Tomus secundus”; “Nicephori Gregorae Historiae Byzantinae” continued; notes by Hieronymus Wolf; notes by Charles du Fresne; notes by Jean Boivin (including two full-page copper-engraved portraits, the first of Hippocrates, the second of Alexios Apokaukos); notes by Claude Capperonnier; “Addenda”; “Index”; “Corrigenda, vel supplenda”; “Addenda”. With elaborate copper-engraved royal printer’s colophon to title page and allegorical ornamentation throughout volume. Binding bumped and worn, some chipping to labels; otherwise a very good two-volume set. VERY RARE. Paris edition of Nikephorus Gregorias’s history of the Byzantine Empire from 1204 to 1359. Published as part of the larger Corpus bizantinae historiae, a vast undertaking begun in 1645 under the direction of the French Jesuit scholar Philippe Labbe and the auspices of Louis XIV, the aim of which was to compile, translate and redact all the early histories of the Byzantine Empire, with extensive commentaries and notes and the original Greek and the Latin translation printed side-by-side. Text in Medieval Greek and Latin.