(Arriani Nicomedensis) Expeditionis Alexandri libri septem et Historia Indica Graec. Et Lat. Cum annotationibus et indice Graeco Iocupletissimo Georgii Raphelii accedunt eclogue Photii ad Arrianum pertinentes cum lectionibus variantibus Dav. Hoeschelii, summaria librorum distincta & emendata, index rerum accuratissimus nec non tabula geographica expeditionis Alexandri

Amsterdam: apud Wetstenium, MDCCLVII [1757]. First Raphael Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo (206 x 127mm). xlviii, 637, [199] pages, 5 (ads.); including half-title in Greek and added engraved title in red and black. Full-page engraved frontispiece of the personification of Victory. Folding engraved map of Alexander’s expedition to Asia (p. 4). Greek and Latin text in double columns, extensive footnotes; the translation and notes by Georg Raphel (1673-1740), German Lutheran theologian and writer. Contemporary vellum boards with spine title in ink: “ARRIANUS de Expedit. Alex: G. RAPHELII”; (spine lightly darkened, covers slightly warped; some marginal toning and foxing, otherwise sound with map fully in tact). Late 18th and 19th century armorial bookplates of antiquarians William Beloe, F.S.A. (1756-1817) and T. S. Gosset of Trinity College Cambridge, (fl. 1812 and later), to front pastedown and leaves. Rear armorial bookplate of R. P. L. Booker, an English bibliophile of the early 20th century whose main collecting interest was in maps. This copy very good and well cared for under lengthy academic ownership.

First Raphel Edition of Arrian’s early history of the campaigns (Anabasis) of Alexander the Great. First published three years earlier, this reprint adds a valuable Greek Index. Raphel organized and devised this work as a revision of the 1704 Gronovius edition. Though initially inspired by his hero, Alexander the Great, Arrian wrote this biography with a neutral and deft hand. He uses only the best primary source material, including Alexander’s own letters, as evidence for his history. Together with the Historia Indica, this compilation volume exhibits great literary acuteness and is widely regarded as the one of the most authentic and accurate of early historical works. The Indica is a description of the voyage from India to Persia by the Alexandrian officer Nearchus. The text was usually united in manuscripts with the Campaigns, as an eighth book. Though is looked to be a supplement to the text of the Campaigns, Arrian often refers to each work separately and the Indica was composed sometime later in the second century. Written in the Ionic dialect, after Herodotus, the Indica highlighted things about India which were similar to Greece. Arrian’s in-depth asides about the country revealed a great deal about the history, geography, and culture of the Indian subcontinent. With the Indica, Arrian wished to depose his own narrative among familiar books, which he found less than reliable. This important edition not commonly found outside institutional copies. Dibdin calls Raphel’s edition, “excellent and commodious.” -- Dibdin (4th ed.), I 329; Hoffmann I, 377.