4 volumes (8 1/4 x 4 7/8 in.; 210 x 125 mm): Vol. 1: 449 pages; Vol. 2: 425 pages; Vol. 3: 433 pages; Vol. 4: 448 pages. Stipple engraved portrait frontispiece; two folding maps. Some spotting and/or foxing throughout; intermittent small tears and holes. Contemporary mottled Spanish calf; covers with a gilt roll-tool border; flat spine gilt with red and black morocco lettering pieces; marbled endpapers; corners bumped, some joints weak (vols. 1, 4). 

Josephus Flavius (ca. 37-after 100) was an important Jewish historian and one of the chief representatives of Jewish-Hellenistic literature. Born in Jerusalem into an aristocratic, priestly family, he would go on to become a commander of rebel troops in the Galilee during the Jewish Revolt. After surrendering to the Romans, he endeared himself to the imperial court and received Emperor Vespasian’s patronage. In Rome, he composed four major works: Antiquities of the Jews, The Life of Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, and Against Apion. The present lot is an early American edition of these books, translated into English by the theologian and mathematician William Whiston (1667-1752), in a lovely contemporary binding possibly by John Roulston of Boston.

Provenance

Richard R. Parry (armorial boo🐼kplate on front pastedowns, signatures on title pages, paper tickets on spines, stamp on vol. 1: title and p. 107)