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SCALIGER, Joseph Juste (1540-1609). De emendatione temporum. Paris: Mamert Patisson for Sebastien Nivelle, 1 August 1583.
2o (354 x 224 mm). Title printed in red and black with Nivelle's woodcut device (Renouard 833), ornamental initials and head-pieces; some sections of text and tables printed in red. (Some dampstaing in lower inner margins crossing text, a few wormholes through text.) Contemporary vellum with overlapping edges (head of spine partially defective). Provenance: contemporary inscription of Zwinger on title, perhaps the Swiss scholar Thedor Zwinger (d. 1588); A.L. Keller (1722 inscriptiion on title); duplicate library stamp on title; John Slocum; acquired from Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1988.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FOUNDATION WORK ON CHRONOLOGY. Scaliger was one of the greatest scholars of his age, and De emendatione temporum is his most important work which revolutionized ancient chronology. "It showed that ancient history was not restricted to that of the Greeks and Romans, but also involved that of the Persians, Babylonians and Egyptians, and that of the Jews, hitherto treated as 'sacred history', a subject apart. With incredible diligence Scaliger compared critically the surviving histories and chronicles of each civilization and evolved out of their several chronologies a continuous narrative in the light of the new understanding of the calendar achieved by the Copernican system. When one considers the disorder, the isolated bits and pieces, which comprised ancient history at this date, Scaliger's achievement towers above that of his contemporaries: it is difficult now to imagine how history could be written without an adequate and continuous chronology, based on Scaliger's synchronistic principles" (PMM).
The book also stands as Mamert Patisson's typographic masterpiece, largely employing Greek, Hebrew, and Ethiopic types (the latter from woodblocks). Another issue of this work printed for Robert Estienne appeared in the same year. A TALL COPY.
Adams S-565; PMM 98; Schreiber 257.
2o (354 x 224 mm). Title printed in red and black with Nivelle's woodcut device (Renouard 833), ornamental initials and head-pieces; some sections of text and tables printed in red. (Some dampstaing in lower inner margins crossing text, a few wormholes through text.) Contemporary vellum with overlapping edges (head of spine partially defective). Provenance: contemporary inscription of Zwinger on title, perhaps the Swiss scholar Thedor Zwinger (d. 1588); A.L. Keller (1722 inscriptiion on title); duplicate library stamp on title; John Slocum; acquired from Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1988.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FOUNDATION WORK ON CHRONOLOGY. Scaliger was one of the greatest scholars of his age, and De emendatione temporum is his most important work which revolutionized ancient chronology. "It showed that ancient history was not restricted to that of the Greeks and Romans, but also involved that of the Persians, Babylonians and Egyptians, and that of the Jews, hitherto treated as 'sacred history', a subject apart. With incredible diligence Scaliger compared critically the surviving histories and chronicles of each civilization and evolved out of their several chronologies a continuous narrative in the light of the new understanding of the calendar achieved by the Copernican system. When one considers the disorder, the isolated bits and pieces, which comprised ancient history at this date, Scaliger's achievement towers above that of his contemporaries: it is difficult now to imagine how history could be written without an adequate and continuous chronology, based on Scaliger's synchronistic principles" (PMM).
The book also stands as Mamert Patisson's typographic masterpiece, largely employing Greek, Hebrew, and Ethiopic types (the latter from woodblocks). Another issue of this work printed for Robert Estienne appeared in the same year. A TALL COPY.
Adams S-565; PMM 98; Schreiber 257.