Un Empereur Byzantin Au Dixième Siècle Nicéphore Phocas. Ouvrage Illustré

Paris: Librairie de Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1890. First edition. Hardcover. fair+ to vg. Quarto. iv, 779 (1)pp., 4 chromolithographs, incl. frontispiece, 3 maps, one of them in color and double-paged. Original three-quarter calf over marbled boards, with gilt ruling on covers, lettering, ruling and tooling on spine; raised bands, protected by modern mylar. Top edge gilt. Marbled endpapers. Frontispiece chromolithograph. Title page in red and black with publisher's device. Printed to Japan vellum. Contains four chromolithographs, with tissue guards, and three (truncated) maps, the Byzantine Empire in color and double paged, and 240 in-text gravures. Nikephoros II Phokas was known for his military exploits, triggering a resurgence of the Byzantine Empire in the 10th Century, completing the conquest of Cilizia and Cyprus and the subsequent incursions to Jazira and the Levant. Text in French. Binding with wear along edges, chipping of corners, three inch closed tear at top of front joint, with usual library markings, barcode and sticker on binding, library plates on inside front cover, pocket on inside back cover. Front marbled endpapers and three subsequent leaves, including half-title, loose in block but present. Binding in overall fair+, interior in good+ to very good condition. (Inventory #: 46963)