02203 Societatis Franklinianae (for) Academiae Litterarum Hungaricae Budapest 1922-1927. 26, 206 and [6], 364 pp. (Editiones criticae scriptorum Graecorum at Romanorum a collegio philologico calssico Academiae Litterarum Hungaricae). In a striking quarter leather binding over four raisded bands and wooden boards with very decorative boards with gilt, red and black patterned application in a Byzantine style, and matching painted paper edges. The binding was done in the 1950s or 1960s by a Brisbane bootmaker and book collector with a taste for Byzantine history. * Last and best edition of the work of Byzantine historian Lanonicus Chalcocandyles, "a statement of great experience and extensive learning [.], a trustworthy historian, whose style is interesting and attractive, and whose work is one of the most important sources for the history of the decline and fall of the Greek empire" (William Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Vol. I, p. 680). Written in about 1480, Chalcondylas's history of Byzantium covers the period 1298-1463. "His account of the Byzantine-Ottoman conflict is clearly modeled on the confrontation of Greeks and Persians described by Herodotus. The work also owes much to Thucydides in its use of speeches and Attic vocabulary (Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, p. 407). Chalcondylas' work was first published in a Latin translation in Basel in 1556 (edited by C. Clauserus). The Greek editio princeps was published in Geneva in 1615. A further edition of the Greek text was published in 1843 in the series "Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae" (edited by Immanual Bekker). Darko's edition contains a critical preface and a detailed list of all the known manuscripts (Codicum Catalogus) in the libraries of the Vatican, of Paris, the Bodleian, the Laurentiana at Florence, of Tubingen, the Coislian (now in Paris), of Naples, the Escorial, of Munich, Ashburnham and the Ottobonian. A table on p. 13 of the preface shows the inter-relation of all the manuscripts extant. The edition is based on Darko's tireless work over many years to inspect, collate and compare the manuscripts. As far as we have been able to ascertain only books 1-3 and book 8 have been translated into English. One of the most important sources for the students of the final 150 years of Byzantine history. $450.00AUD
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