Annae Comnenae Porphyrogenitae Caesarissae Alexias, sive de rebus ab Alexio Imperatore vel eius tempore gestis, libri quindecim. E Bibliotheca Barberina nunc primùm editi, et à Petro Possino Soc. Iesu Presbytero Latinâ Interpretatione, Glossario, & Notis illustrati. è quibus Glossarium nunc datur: Notæ mox opportunius edentur, vnà cum Sinnamo Continuatore Annae, & aliis quibusdam ad Alexiadem spectantibus. Accesserunt Præfationes ac Notæ Dauidis Hoeschelii Augustani, ex Editione anni MDCX. [Bound with another contemporary title by the same publisher. See below.] by COMNENA, ANNA - 1651

Paris: E. Typographia Regia [Colophon: Curante Sebastiano Cramoisy], 1651, 1651. The first printed edition of the complete text. Small hole in the title-page where a signature was erased; a little spotting; very good copy, with generous margins.. Two volumes in one, folio, 42 x 29 cm, recent brown half calf, red spine label, marbled paper boards, gilt lettering, edges stained red. With half-title. Engraved vignettes on the title-page and the first leaf of each of the 15 parts. Printed in double columns, with parallel Latin and Greek texts. The first work of history written by a Western woman, Anna Comnena (1083-1153), the 12th century Byzantine princess. She wrote The Alexiad to chronicle the achievements of the reign of her father, emperor Alexius I Comnenus, who ruled Byzantine from 1081 to 1118 and oversaw the so-called Comnenian restoration. Though her accuracy in a few matters has been questioned, the text - an eyewitness account by a participant and observer at the center of events - is an essential source on that period of Byzantine history, and for it Anna Comnena was considered an eminent historian by her contemporaries and future generations. It was written in the final years of her eventful life, during her confinement in a monastery, and completed in 1148. This edition contains the first Latin translation by Pierre Poussines and Charles de Monthal; following the text are explanatory notes by David Hoeschel from an edition of 1610 (reissued in 1618), but that edition contained only eight of the 15 books. Bound with another work of Byzantine history: Procopius of Caesarea's Arcana Historia, Paris: E. Typographia Regia, 1663.