Flavius Josephus – Iosephi Iudei Historici Praeclara Opera – Original Red-and-Black Woodcut Title Leaf – Paris: Jean Petit, 1519

Description

A particularly handsome original title leaf from the 1519 Paris edition of the collected historical works of Flavius Josephus, one of the most important surviving ancient sources for Jewish history, the Judaean world of the first century and the Jewish–Roman wars. Printed in red and black within an elaborate Renaissance woodcut architectural border, the leaf measures approximately 27.1 x 18.2 cm.

The title opens prominently:

“Iosephi Iudei Historici praeclara opera…”

and announces a substantial collection of Josephus’s writings, including the twenty books of the Antiquitates Judaicae or Jewish Antiquities, the seven books of De Bello Judaico or The Jewish War, and the two books traditionally known as Contra Apionem, together with editorial material, concordances, summaries and associated historical texts. WorldCat records this edition with Flavius Josephus and Robert Goulet, and identifies Jean Petit, François Regnault and Antoine Bonnemère with its production.

The edition can be identified precisely as:

Flavius Josephus, Opera. Paris: Antoine Bonnemère, for Jean Petit and François Regnault, 1 April 1519.

The specialist French Post-Incunables bibliography gives the collation and production details and states that the work was printed in Paris by Antoine Bonnemère for François Regnault and Jean Petit, using the title-page compartment of Nicolas Des Prez and the device of Jean Petit.

The title-page border is exceptionally decorative. An architectural framework encloses the text, with Renaissance columns, hanging ornament, armoured or allegorical figures, shields, grotesque and animal decoration and a broad upper panel populated with fantastical beasts and portrait-like figures. The lower section incorporates further heraldic and animal ornament. At the centre beneath the title is the printer/bookseller’s device of Jean Petit, while the imprint announces that copies were sold in Paris in the Rue Saint-Jacques beneath the sign of the Golden Lily. A surviving institutional copy digitised by Queen’s University confirms the same title-page arrangement, describing it as printed in red and black with a woodcut border and printer’s device.

The contrast between the black letterpress and the extensive red printing used for the principal headings gives the title considerable visual presence. Early-sixteenth-century title pages printed in two colours required an additional press operation and were considerably more elaborate productions than ordinary text leaves.

The verso opens the prefatory material. The edition contains a preliminary letter by its editor, Robert Goulet, and the specialist bibliography records this editorial letter as dated 30 January 1513/14. The verso of the present leaf retains the large decorated initial and dense humanist Latin setting of that introductory material.

Flavius Josephus

Flavius Josephus (c.37–c.100 CE) was a Jewish priest, military commander and historian whose works constitute fundamental literary sources for the political, religious and military history of Judaea under Hellenistic and Roman rule. His Jewish Antiquities was completed around 93–94 CE, while The Jewish War provides the principal extended ancient narrative of the revolt against Rome and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

Josephus also has particular importance for historians of early Christianity because the Antiquities contain passages concerning figures known from the New Testament tradition. In this 1519 edition, the celebrated and much-debated Testimonium Flavianum, concerning Jesus, occurs at folio CLXX recto. This gives the present title leaf an additional connection with the long history of Josephus’s reception within Christian biblical and historical scholarship.

The 1519 Paris Edition

This is an unusually well-documented early Paris edition. French Post-Incunables gives the date 1 April 1519, printer Antoine Bonnemère, and publishers/booksellers Jean Petit and François Regnault. It further identifies the decorative title compartment as belonging to Nicolas Des Prez and the central device as that of Jean Petit.

A complete digitised institutional copy from Queen’s University confirms the colophon information: the first part was printed in Paris by Antoine Bonnemère in 1519, while a later colophon records production at the expense of François Regnault and Jean Petit, with a final date of 30 May 1519.

This was therefore produced only nineteen years after the conventional end-date of the incunable period and belongs firmly to the French post-incunable era, when Paris had become one of Europe’s major centres of printing and bookselling.

Condition

Very good overall condition for an original title leaf of 1519, with the principal recto displaying particularly well.

There is general light age-toning, occasional minor spotting and faint surface marking. The edges show slight irregularity and wear, with a small crease or fold at the upper right corner. There are several early or later manuscript inscriptions and marks on the recto, including writing across the central lower portion of the printed title and an old manuscript date “1519” beneath the device. Further faint manuscript marking is visible at the upper margin.

The verso retains evidence of historic mounting, with two broad old paper strips or hinges attached along the upper margin. There is minor associated staining and surface marking, but the printed prefatory text remains substantially complete and highly legible.

The elaborate woodcut title compartment, red-and-black printing and Jean Petit device remain exceptionally clear and visually strong.

Please study the photographs carefully as they form an integral part of the condition description.

Author

Flavius Josephus (c.37–c.100 CE)

Title

Iosephi Iudei Historici Praeclara Opera

Principal Contents

Antiquitates Judaicae – twenty books
De Bello Judaico – seven books
Contra Apionem – two books
Associated summaries, concordances and editorial material.

Editor: Robert Goulet

Printer: Antoine Bonnemère

Publishers / Booksellers: Jean Petit and François Regnault

Place: Paris

Date: 1519

Bibliographical Date: 1 April 1519, with production of the various parts continuing during the year.

Title-Page Compartment: Attributed bibliographically to Nicolas Des Prez.

Printer’s / Bookseller’s Device: Jean Petit

Size: 27.1 x 18.2 cm

Language: Latin.

Printing: Letterpress in red and black, within an elaborate woodcut architectural border.

Period: Early sixteenth century / French post-incunable printing.

Authentication & Research

This leaf has been handled, inspected and catalogued in-house at our Ripon gallery. The wording, title-page decoration, Jean Petit device and 1519 Paris imprint have been compared with a complete digitised institutional example held by Queen’s University and with the specialist French Post-Incunables bibliography. The digitised copy reproduces the same red-and-black title with woodcut border and Jean Petit device and confirms the 1519 Paris printing.

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