The Works of Flavius Josephus, printed by François Regnault and Jean Petit
The second volume chronologically in the acquisition is the Works of Flavius Josephus. There were two editions of this work printed in Paris in 1519; both were by François Regnault in partnership with other printers. For the first edition, that which is present in the acquisition, Regnault printed with Jean Petit. For the edition that came later in the same year, he printed with Antoine Bonnemère.
Like Petit, Regnault was a libraire juré, or a "sworn book seller." They were officers of the University of Paris with special privileges and were influential, senior members of the book trade.
A nearly identical frontispiece frame to that used by Josse Badius is also featured within this volume, although he did not appear to have had a hand in producing the work. The frame is slightly altered from how it appeared on the title page of the Works of Origen.
The similarities of the frames demonstrate how Paris printers collaborated by renting, trading, or copying each other's woodblocks and matrices, thus creating a regional aesthetic employed in the decoration of books. The widespread use of a frame associated with Josse Badius indicates the popularity of his editions as other printers imitated the decorative elements present in his books.
The printer's mark used for this title is that of Jean Petit, although it is a different iteration from the one used in the Works of Origen.
This iteration does not stray far from the previous version. Here we see two lions flanking the shield instead of a lion and a leopard. The knotted fleur-de-lys is replaced with a more traditional depiction of the emblem. The cherubs are not included in this version, and the tree that the shield hangs from appears to be more of a stump than a tree. Above the lions is a blank banner.
Originally, the depicted men were thought to perhaps be portraits of the printers. However, earlier editions that were financed by Regnault and Petit but printed by Jean Barbier and Nicolas des Prez, feature scrolls under the portraits labeling these men. It appears that the figure on the right is Josephus, and the figure on the left is Hegesippus, the supposed author of a Latin edition of the Jewish War under the title De bello Judaico et excidio urbis Hierosolymitanae.
Ultimately, these figures were likely meant to be changeable and representative of more than one individual, as indicated by the blank space below them. By simply labeling the figures with different names, or not labelling them at all, the decorative frame could be used for a number of different books.
Nicholas Des Prez and Jean Barbier were responsible for the first few editions of works by Josephus that were printed in Paris. A previous edition in 1514 was printed by Jean Barbier and Nicholas Des Pres but funded by Regnault and Petit. The title page for the 1514 edition printed by Des Prez and Barbier does not differ much from this edition printed by Regnault and Petit. The type for the title of our edition was set in a manner that seems to have widened it slightly, accounting for why the pieces of the frame may have been printed misaligned.
The book is bound in plain vellum and the cover is embossed with the initials B.C.R. in gold. Parts of the binding have worn away to reveal the thin wooden board used to support the covers. Some portions of the marginalia within the book have been cut off indicating this is not the book's first binding.
This title contains the works of Flavius Josephus, a Roman-Jewish historian and military leader active during the first century. His works contain valuable insights into first-century Judaism and the background in which early Christianity developed.
Josephus' works are also considered the most complete account of the history and antiquity of ancient Israel next to the Bible. The Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world through a Jewish perspective for a gentile audience. It covers the period from Biblical creation to the time of Emperor Claudius. The first ten volumes follow the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, and the second ten volumes continue the history of the Jewish people until the First Jewish-Roman War. The Jewish War recounts the capture of Jerusalem by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 168 BC to the First Jewish-Roman War, and ends with the death of the last Sicarii.