NICETAS CHONIATES. Della Historia di Niceta Coniate delle cose dell'Imperio di Costantinopoli libri VII. Ne' quali si contengono i fatti degl'Imperatori Greci, cominciando da Alessio Comneno doue lascia il Zonara, fin 'all'anno 1457 nel qual su presa quella Città da Mahomet Secondo. Con le postille a suoi luoghi dinotanti le cose di maggiore importanza. Et con molte altre cose utili & necessarie a Lettori. Venice (In Venetia), (Colophon at the end: Appresso Francesco Sansovino, 1562) 4to. 4 unnumbered leaves, 111 leaves. Vellum. 20.5 cm (Ref: Edit17 CNCE 31070; Hoffmann 2,634) (Details: 2 vellum thongs laced through the joints at the head & tail of the spine. Short title in ink on the back. Woodcut printer's mark on the title, depicting man who lies on his back, and looks at the washing moon high in the sky. The text is printed in italics. Woodcut headpiece at the beginning of the dedication, preface and translation. Woodcut initials) (Condition: Vellum soiled. Binding slightly damaged at the extremities. Old name on the title. A few pinpoint wormholes in the back. Small piece of vellum gone at the right outer edge of the upper board. Lacking the last blank leaf. Both pastedowns worn. Right upper corner of the last flyleaf torn off) (Note: The Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates (Nikêtas Chôniates), ca. 1155-1216, was born in Chonai (Phrygia, Asia Minor, and present day Khonas), hence his name Choniates, 'from Chonai'. He joined his older brother Michael in Constantinople, where he embarked upon a political career, and became an important civil servant. As governor of Thrace he was personally involved in the events relating to Frederick Barbarossa's passage through Thrace during the Third Cusade in 1189, when he lost his province to the Germans. After the capture of Constantinople and 3 of days of terrible and bloody looting by the Crusaders, who were helped by the Venetians, (13-15 April 1204) Niketas sought refuge in the home of a friend, the Venetian wine merchant Dominicus, who came to his rescue. Although a desperate refugee he was a brave man. 'As Niketas' party approached the Church of St. Mokios, one of the Crusaders snatched the fair-headed daughter of a certain judge. Stumbling into a mudhole in despair, the venerable judge pleaded with Niketas to save his daughter. To Niketas' credit, in the face of great personal danger, he persued the abductor and forced him to release the girl by appealing to his fellow Crusaders'. ('O City of Byzantium, Annals of Nicetas Choniates', translated by H.J. Magoulias, Detroit, 1984, p. XIV-XV) Niketas fled and went into voluntary exile in Nicaea, where he settled at the court of the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Lascaris. There he completed a theological treatise, the 'Dogmatikê Panoplia', which deals with the theological controversies of his time, in some of which he himself had been involved, and wrote this valuable account of the events of his lifetime. His account, which is said to be impartial, begins with the death of Emperor Alexius I Comnenus in 1118, who left his empire in bankruptcy, and ends with events of autumn 1207, after the death of Baldwin I, the first Latin emperor of Byzantium. 'The final draft of his history was left undone, and its abrupt ending may have been due to his approaching death, which also may explain his haste to complete it'. (Idem, p. XVI) He considered the Comnenus dynasty a major cause of the empire's destruction and the sack of its capital in 1204. Another chief cause was the deterioration of the Byzantine navy. The Byzantines lost control of the seas to the Venetians. 'One of the historian's (Niketas) most telling criticisms is that the Muslims treated the conquered Latins in Jerusalem in 1187 with magnanimity, while the Christians of the West behaved shamelessly toward their fellow Christians in the East'. (Idem, p. XXVII) The history of the thallasocracy of Venice is closely connected with the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople twice granted her special trade privileges, and with the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople this city state became an imperial power, backed by its huge fleet. A considerable part of the loot was shipped to Venice, including the famous bronze horses stolen from the Hippodrome, which came to adorn the entrance of the San Marco Cathedral. With the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 numerous merchants, Jews and Byzantine scholars fled to Venice. It is not strange that 16th century Venice was eager to read about their city's greatness and the collaps of the Byzantine Empire. The 'editio princeps' of the 'Historia' of Nicetas was published in Basel by Wolf in 1557. A few years later, in 1562, 3 Venetian translations were published. The first one, this edition of 1562, was obviously a success, for Francesco Sansovino brought in the same year a second augmented edition on the market. His fellow townsman Vincenzo Valgrisi published in 1562 also a translation, this time made by Joseppe Horologgi. (See Hoffmann 2,634) Sansovino, who apparantly considered Choniates' 'Historia' to be not elegant enough, published in 1562 for his own press his own revision of the not yet published translation of Fausto da Longiano. (Preface *4 recto) At the beginning of each of the 7 books he proudly claims his part in the historiography of Constantinople, for he adds to 'DELLE COSE DELL'IMPERIO DI COSTANTINOPOLI (...) SCRITTE PARTE DA NICETA CONIATE', printed in capitals, in lowercase: '& parte da Francesco Sansovino'. This translation fell on fertile ground in Venice. Interest did not dwindle, for in 1568 and 1571 two other editions appeared, both translations of L. Dolce. The interest of Sansovino in Niketas may have been aroused by his experiences during his own childhood. He was born in Rome in 1521, and witnessed as a child the sack of his city in 1527 by mutinous troops of Charles the 5th. He and his father fled to Venice. Sansovino studied law in Padua and Bologna, and after attempting a career at the court of Pope Julius III, he returned to Venice. He was a many-sided author of poetry, prose writings on literature, history and rhetoric, as well as a translator and editor. He opened his own printing house, publishing around 30 editions, many of good quality, between 1560 and 1568. He was widely read during the Renaissance, especially his historical works. His best known work is 'Venetia, città nobilissima et singolare, descritta in XII libri' of 1581, a kind of encyclopedia of the city) (Provenance: On the title: 'Ex libris Jacobi Alberti ..ndini'. The first 2 letters of the last element are illegible) (Collation: *4, A-Z4, AA-EE4 (minus leaf EE4, a blank)) (Photographs on request)
Book number: 151902 Euro 1100.00

Keywords: (Oude Druk), (Rare Books), Byzantion, Byzantium, Italian imprint, Nicetas Choniates, Niketas, Venedig, Venice, byzantine history, byzantinische Geschichte