Regiomontani Historia Osrhoena et Edessena ex Numis Illustrata

St Petersburg: Typographia Academiae, 1734. First Edition. Contemporary stiff vellum with a blind stamped central medallion and borders.. Very good; spot on spine from gum label; no accessioning; front joint partially cracked; a bit dusty.. 4to, [22], [1] - 362, [10 - index] pp. + 7 engraved plates; head and tailpieces. Text is in Latin with Arab, Greek, and Syriac fonts.

Founded during the Seleucid Empire the city of Edessa was the precursor to modern Urfa (Turkish: Sanliurfa) established after the Parthian Wars that was to become the center of the Arabic Abgarid dynasty and the kingdom of Osroene. It was eventually to be the seat of the most important bishopric in Syria. The book offered here is a study of the coinage and history of the city and kingdom centered about it. Bayer was a among a small group of pioneering German "orientalists" in the early 18th century. It is not by chance that he emigrated to St Petersburg to take up his post as professor of Greek and Roman antiquities. His move coincided with the first of the great exploratory expeditions mounted by the St Petersburg Academy in 1725 that marked the beginning of an era of renewed interest in the history and antiquity of the Russian empire. Cicognara #2756; see Marchand, German Orientalism ....