A two-hundred-year-old edition of The Works of Flavius Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian; this being an early printing of the Whiston translation, printed in two volumes in 1825 by the London publisher, James Robins & Co. These are attractive bindings with a tremendous sense of history, with calf-bound, decorative spines and embossed detail to the front and rear covers. The two volumes comprise 'Twenty Books of the Jewish Antiquities, Seven Books of The Jewish War and the Life of Josephus, as written by Himself' translated from the original Greek, and accompanied by explanatory notes and observations by William Whiston, and later revised with illustrations and notes by the Reverend Samual Burder.

Volume 1 comprises 623 pages and is illustrated with frontispieces and numerous engraved plates, some in colour. Volume 2 has 472 pages together with the index pages, again illustrated with plates.

Flavius Josephus (37-100 CE) was a Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, whose writings provide one of the most important sources of information relating to first-century Judaism and early Christianity.

William Whiston (1667-1752) was a theologian and philosopher, best known for being successor to Isaac Newton at Cambridge University, a post from which he was later expelled for his unorthodox religious views.

22cm x 28cm.

Condition: Both volumes are in good condition, particularly given their considerable age. Many pages show a degree of discoloration and foxing, particularly around the margins. The bindings are generally good. There is some edge separation to the uppermost compartment of the spine to Volume 1 and light wear elsewhere, also numerous scuffs and shallow scratches to the covers of both volumes. There is some inner separation to the binding adjacent to the list of plates in Volume 2, as shown in the second to last image. However, these are very old books that survive in a condition that belies their age.