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The Editio Princeps of the First Five Books of Polybius.

Polybius; Vincentius Opsopoeus; Niccolò Perotti. ΠΟΛΥΒΙΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΠΟΛΙΤ ΟΥ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΩΝ ΒΙ ΒΛΙΑΕ.Historiarum libri quinq[ue]. ΠΟΛΥΒΙΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΠΟΛΙΤ ΟΥ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΩΝ ΒΙ ΒΛΙΑΕ
Historiarum libri quinq , opera Vincentiii Obsopoei in lucem editi. Iidem Latini Nicolao Perotto Episcopo Sipontino Interprete.
Haganoae Iohannem Secerium March 1530
[4], 106 Bl ; 142. 2°
Woodcut initials and headpieces. Titles preceded by vine-ornament Text in Greek and Latin; each part separately foliated.
Editio princeps of the first 5 books, the only fully preserved portion of Polybius's history of the rise of the Roman empire from 220 to 146 B.C.; books 6-40 survive in fragmentary form.
The revival of interest in the study of Polybius was due to Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455), the founder of the Vatican Library. Soon after his election he seems to have urged Cardinal Perotti to undertake a Latin translation of the five books then known to exist.
On the 3d of January 1454 the Pope writes again to Perotti thanking him for the third book; and in a letter to Torelli, dated 13th November 1453, Perotti says that he had finished his translation of Polybius in the preceding September. This translation was first printed in 1473. The Greek text was not printed till this edition in 1530, the first five books in Greek, along with Perotti's translation. Dedicatory epistle by Vincentii Obsopaei to George, Marquess of Brandenburg, dated October 1529.

Johannes Secerium took over the publishing house of his father in law Thomas Anshelm in 1523, the company continued until 1534.

The inscription on the title page refers to the translation of Pompilius Amasaeus Dediversis rerum publicarum formis deque Romanae praestantia of the fragments from book VI (VI3-18 and VI43- 58). Contemporary limp vellum, lacking ties. Soiling to front free endpaper
Ink inscription to first free end paper and title. old ink under linings and annotations to margins of first 25 pages including drawing of the bow of a ship lower margin p5 and battle plan in lower margin p7.
Further annotations in Greek to first pages of Latin translation.
Light dampstain to Perotti's Latin translation.

Polybios; c.200 – c.118 BC)
was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period noted for his Histories, which covered the period of 264–146 BC in detail. The work describes the rise of the Roman Republic to the status of dominance in the ancient Mediterranean world and included his eyewitness account of the Sack of Carthage in 146 B. Polybius' father, Lycortas, was a prominent advocate of neutrality during the Roman war against Perseus of Macedonia. Lycortas attracted the suspicion of the Romans, and Polybius subsequently was one of the 1,000 Achaean nobles who were transported to Rome as hostages in 167 BC, and was detained there for 17 years. In Rome, by virtue of his high culture, Polybius was admitted to the most distinguished houses, in particular to that of Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, the conqueror in the Third Macedonian War, who entrusted Polybius with the education of his sons, Fabius and Scipio Aemilianus (who had been adopted by the eldest son of Scipio Africanus). Polybius remained on cordial terms with his former pupil Scipio Aemilianus and was among the members of the Scipionic Circle. Polybius remained a counselor to Scipio when he defeated the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War. When the Achaean hostages were released in 150 BC, Polybius was granted leave to return home, but the next year he went on campaign with Scipio Aemilianus to Africa, and was present at the Sack of Carthage in 146, which he later described. Following the destruction of Carthage, Polybius likely journeyed along the Atlantic coast of Africa, as well as Spain.
After the destruction of Corinth in the same year, Polybius returned to Greece, making use of his Roman connections to lighten the conditions there. Polybius was charged with the difficult task of organizing the new form of government in the Greek cities, and in this office he gained great recognition.


Niccolò Perotti, also Perotto or Nicolaus Perottus (1429 – 14 December 1480) was an Italian humanist and author of one of the first modern Latin school grammars.

Professor at the University of Bologna. - Archbishop of Siponto. - Governor of various cities of the States of the Church. - Author of the first Latin grammar of modern times.
He was a secretary of Cardinal Basilius Bessarion in 1447, and wrote a biography of him in 1472.
From 1451 to 1453 he taught rhetoric and poetry at the University of BolognaIn 1452 he was made Poet Laureate in Bologna by the Emperor Frederick III, as acknowledgment of the speech of welcome he had composed. In 1455 he became secretary to Pope Callixtus III. In 1456 he was ordained, and from 1458 he was Archbishop of Siponto. Occasionally he officiated also as papal governor in Viterbo (1464–69), Spoleto (1471-2) and Perugia (1474–77).[7] He also travelled on diplomatic missions to Naples and Germany]

On behalf of Pope Nicholas V he translated Polybius' Roman History for which the Pope paid him five hundred ducats.
He was also something of a controversialist and openly criticized Domizio Calderini for his work on Martial. He was involved in Lorenzo Valla's dispute with the writer Poggio Bracciolini, and in 1453 he sent an assassin to murder Poggio, then Chancellor of Florence. When the attempt failed and the Florentine government protested, he was forced by Bessarion, his employer, to write an apology to Poggio.
Perotti was so incensed by the number of errors in Giovanni Andrea Bussi's printed edition of Pliny's Natural History that the wrote to the Pope asking him to set up a board of learned correctors (such as himself) who would scrutinise every text before it could be printed. This has been described as the first call for censorship of the press. He himself was later accused by another scholar of introducing 275 serious errors in the text when he produced his own version of the work.
A collection of fables by Phaedrus, not known from any other source, was discovered by Perotti in a manuscript which is now lost. Perotti's version has been preserved in the Vatican Library and is known as "Perotti's Appendix".
Together with the Florentine bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci, he collected books for the Papal library

Vincent Opsopoeus (d 1539; actually Vinzenz Heidecker) was a Bavarian author.

Studied in Tübingen, went to Hagenau with Thomas Anshelm in 1516 and became his corrector and Schwiegersohn.
In 1523 he took over the press of his father-in-law.
The heirs continued the office until 1534
Adams P-1801,Hoffmann III, 265; Sarton I, 188. 290 by 185mm (11½ by 7¼ inches).   ref: 2903  €4500

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