GIOSEFFO FLAVIO. Delle antichità, e Guerre Giudaiche. Diviso in vintisette libri.In Venetia, Appresso Angelo Bosio, 1702

4to, 222x160 mm; contemporary full vellum binding, title written on spine. Pp. [22] 544; 291. A little vignette on both title pages depicting Noah’s ark. Initial letters, head pieces and end pieces. Le Antichità giudaiche are illustrated by a lot of portrait on full page in the text, depicting many prophets as Jacob, Samuel, David, Solomon, Elijah, and other characters of jew’s history. There are also a lot of woodcut vignettes useful to shows the scenes describes in the text. Printer’s mark in the end of 19th book of “Antichità” and in the end of “Guerre Giudaiche”. Note of previous ownership on the first title page. Good copy.

This edition, the two most important works of Giuseppe Flavio: Delle Antichità and Delle Guerre Giudaiche are divided into 3 parts. The first part, divided into 10 books, "... deals with the creation of the world until the Sennacherib War." In the second part, divided into 10 books, we find "the turning of the Jews in Jerusalem to the discord between the Jews and Philadelphi." In the third and last part, divided into 7 books, it is in the end "the wars that the Hebrews were slain with the Romans." These are the two most important works that Flavio Giuseppe (about 37-97 AD) have ever written. The Twenty Books of Antichità giudaiche, historical work par excellence, embrace the history of the Jewish people from the creation of the world to the reign of Nero; In ancient times the work spread widely so that Flavio was called the Greek Livio and is now considered the only source for Jewish history treaties and is very useful also for Roman history. The seven books of Delle Guerre Giudaiche, originally written in Aramaic and subsequently translated into Greek, exhibit the events of the Roman War against the Jews, won by Vespasian and Tito, and ended with the destruction of Jerusalem. This is the work where, in book 18, chapter 6, we find the so-called Testimonium flavianum, or a brief step that mentions Jesus' preaching and death, essentially confirming the account of the Gospels, although this step is now considered by some historians, including E. Schürer and H. Chadwick, in whole or in part, a Christian interpolation.