[Apologie pour Hérodote].

first edition in English

The first edition in English of the French humanist Henri Estienne's (d.1598) Apologie pour Hérodote, an important defence of the 'Father of History' from long-held accusations that his work was unreliable and even fanciful. The text also forms a satire on the state of the European morals of Estienne's own day, which led him to run afoul of the church in Geneva, leading to his arrest and the removal of the offending passages.

The criticism of Herodotus dated back to his contemporaries and focused particularly on the retrospective nature of the Histories, which led the author to rely on oral sources and tradition. To Thucydides, he was merely a storyteller, and Cicero bracketed his praise by noting that Herodotus' writing contained many fabulous tales ('innumerabiles fabulae', De Legibus I, 5).

The Apologie was initially published in Latin under the title Apologia pro Herodoto as a prefatory essay to an edition of the Histories Estienne brought to the press in 1566, which followed the Latin translation of Lorenzo Valla. The present edition was translated by the Elizabethan antiquary Richard Carew (1555-1620) out of expanded French-language edition that had caused so-much controversy with the ecclesiastical authorities in Geneva.

First edition in English, 2 parts in 1 vol.; folio (28 x 19 cm); divisional title, woodcut devices to title and divisional title, woodcut initials, head and tailpieces, errata f. to rear, MS ownership inscription in pen to head of title, lacking front blank f., some underlining in red crayon, occasional spotting, final f. a little soiled; 20th-century sprinkled calf, contrasting brown morocco lettering-piece to spine, slightly rubbed, very good; [18], 217, [7], 229-358, [2]pp.

ESTC S121359.