Historia antiqua hoc est, Myrsili Lesbij liber de Origine Italiæ & Tyrrhenorum. M. Porcij Catonis Fragmenta ex libris Originum. Archilochi liber de Temporibus. Berosi Babylonij Antiquitatum lib. V. Manethonis Ægyptij liber de Regibus Ægyptorum [...]

Full title: Historia antiqua hoc est, Myrsili Lesbij liber de Origine Italiæ & Tyrrhenorum. M. Porcij Catonis Fragmenta ex libris Originum. Archilochi liber de Temporibus. Berosi Babylonij Antiquitatum lib. V. Manethonis Ægyptij liber de Regibus Ægyptorum. Metasthenes Persa, de indicio temporum. Xenophon de æquiuocis. Q. Fabius Pictor de aureo sæculo, & de origine urbis Roma, eiusque descriptione. C. Sempronius de divisione Italia. Philonis Iudæi Antiquitatum Biblicarum Liber. Accessit Censura Gasperis Varrerii in Berosum Ab eruditis pridem desiderata

 

8vo. pp. [6] (blank), [2], 118, [2] (blank); pp. 46. Signatures: pt. 1: A-G⁸H⁴; pt. 2: A-C⁸. Contemporary vellum. Engraved border around title page. Engraved initial, headpiece. From the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps.

 

A reprint of ten texts from Nanni’s collection, all forged. Previously issued as Antiquitatum variarum volumina XVII. The tract condemning Berosus, by the Portuguese geographer Gaspar Barreiros, “Censura in quendam auctorem, qui sub falsa inscriptione Berosi Chaldæi circumfertur,” is separately signed, and has a title page dated 1598. See H. M. Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, 1501-1600, in Cambridge Libraries. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1967, H630. On Annius, see several contributions in W. Stephens & E. Havens (eds.), Literary forgery in early modern Europe, 1450-1800, Baltimore, 2018, esp. A. Grafton, “Annius of Viterbo as a Student of the Jews: The Sources of His Information;” S. O’Connell, “Fashioning Noah: How a Forger Turned an Etruscan God into a Biblical Figure;” and W. Stephens, “Exposing the Archforger: Annius of Viterbo’s First Master Critic.”

 

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