[4], 227 leaves. [A]4, B-Y8, Aa-Gg8, Hh4 (with Hh4 a blank). Title within an illustrated, ornamental border. [London]: In ædibus Richardi Tottell, 1561. STC 6143.
[bound with] Diodorus Siculus. A righte noble and pleasant history of the Successors of Alexander surnamed the Great, taken out of Diodorus Siculus: and some of their lives written by the wise Plutarch. Translated out of French into Englysh. by Thomas Stocker. [4], 159, [7] leaves. A-Z4, Aa-Ss4, Hh6. London: Henrie Bynneman for Humfrie Toy, 1569. STC 6893.
Together, 2 volumes bound in 1. (4to) 7½x5¼, contemporary English calf binding full tooled in gilt, with gilt emblem of Queen Elizabeth at center of each cover, raised spine bands, all edges gilt; recased with later endpapers.
Very rare early English edition of Curtius and the first edition in English of Diordorus. The first edition in English of The Actes of the greate Alexander was printed in 1553 by the same publisher. A translation of Christoph Bruno's edition of: Historia Alexandri Magni, being a key account of the life and acts of Alexander the Great, written by the first century Roman historian. The second work is a translation of books 18-20 of the "Bibliotheca historica" of Diodorus from the French version of Claude de Seyssel, in turn a translation of the Latin translation of Janus Lascaris; with the life of Demetrius by Plutarch. Both works are very rare - only two incomplete copies of the 1561 Curtius are listed in the American Book Prices Current as having sold in the last 25 years, and only one copy of the 1569 Diordorus is listed in the same period. Armorial bookplate with 1860 date, the same devise blindstamped on title-page.
Condition:
The title-page of the the first work is trimmed, mounted on backing leaf, with slight loss of engraved border; the following three leaves are supplied from another copy, with some repairs, margins extended at top and bottom, ink marginalia; some aging to contents, stain spots to K3-L4 of 1st work, marginal tear to N8 affecting a shoulder note, final leaf of second work mounted on backing sheet; else very good, a striking copy with two extremely rare texts, in gilt-tooled Elizabethan binding.