IMPORTANT 1486 HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT: “THE MOST WIDESPREAD LATIN VERSION OF THE STORY”

(ALEXANDER THE GREAT) (PSEUDO-CALLISTHENES). Historia Alexandri Magni Regis macedonie de prelijs. (Strassburg: [Printer of Jordanus de Quedlinburg (George Husner)], [14 October], 1486). Small folio in sixes (8 by 11 inches), period-style full red calf, elaborately gilt decorated spine and boards, raised bands; ff. 37 of 38, without final blank only.

First Strassburg edition of the most widespread version of the Alexander the Great romance—“the most widespread Latin version”—edited by Leo, Archpresbyter of Constantinople. A wide-margined copy, very handsomely bound. Rare and important in spreading the romance of Alexander through the western world.

“The romance of Alexander is found written in the languages of nearly all peoples from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, but all these versions are derived from the Greek original which circulated under the false name of Callisthenes” which first appeared in the third century (Britannica, 11th edition). The court historian Callisthenes accompanied Alexander on his famous expedition across Persia to India, but none of his writings have survived, and he died in jail during that campaign after displeasing Alexander, which would make it impossible for him to have narrated Alexander’s death and the subsequent eulogies. Thus the anonymous author of the present collection of legends and anecdotes is now known as Psuedo-Callisthenes. “The Alexander romance found its way into Europe through the medium of Latin, but originated mainly from the versions of the pseudo-Callisthenes, not from the more sober narrative of Quintus Curtius… The most widespread Latin version of the story, however, was the Historia de preliis, printed at Strassburg in 1486… It is said to have been written by the Neapolitan Archpresbyter Leo, who was sent to Constantinople where he found his Greek original” (Britannica, 11th edition). First published in 1472 in Cologne, and then again in 1475 in the Netherlands, this is only the third edition of the Historia Alexandri Magni to appear, and the first to be printed in Strassburg. A popular work of the time, this Latin text was printed again in Strassburg in 1489 and 1494, as well as in German in Strassburg in 1488 and 1493. Finely printed in black-letter in two columns of 43 lines, with spaces for initials (not rubricated in this copy). Goff A-397. Proctor 606. Hain 779. Inoffensive penciled marginalia.

A few insignificant wormholes, text generally quite clean. An excellent, wide-margined copy of this rare incunable history of Alexander the Great. Beautifully bound.