Lhistoire de Thucydide Athenien, de la guerre, qui fut entre les Peloponnesiens et Atheniens, translatee en langue francoyse par feu Messire Claude de Seyssel lors euesque de Marseille et depuis archeuesque de Turin.

Folio: [16]-cclxxxi ff. (lacking final blank; a few minor stains, tiny wormtrack in bottom margin of last quire).

Contemp. blindstamped calf (expertly repaired). Excellent wide-margined copy.

Beautifully printed first edition of the 1st French translation of Thucydides by Claude de Seyssel (1450-1520), edited by Jacques Colin (14.-1547). Through his 7 translations of ancient history Seyssel played a major role in transmitting knowledge about Antiquity to the French. He was neither French nor Italian but a Savoyard, not truly noble but the illegitimate son of a noble family, not truly historian but a writer of history-based propaganda and a translator of histories. He began his career as a jurist, became a royal councillor, then a bishop, and in the end died as the Archbishop of Turin. Badius had a contract made for 1225 copies on paper, and a few on vellum. Small poem of Clément Marot on aVr. Title within elaborate woodcut border. Ref. Moreau III 1343. - Renouard "Badius" III 304:2 = "Imprimeurs" II 579. - Hoffmann III:757. - Adams T-679. - STCFrench (BL London) 421. - Cioranescu 20735. - Bn-Opale plus. Prov. Several contemp. ownership entries (some crossed out). - Pen drawings on l8r and H4v.