Book Details

Author: Hyde, Thomas: [Hunt, Thomas and Costard, George, eds.:]

Title: Veterum Persarum et Parthorum et Medorum Religionis Historia.

Publication: Oxonii [Oxford]: e Typographeo Clarendoniano, (1760).

Description: Second edition. 4to., pp. [xl], 580 + 21 plates, as called for (in this copy, plates II and III have not been separated as instructed but are bound together as one leaf opposite p.113). Text in Latin with sections in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew and Persian. Light sporadic foxing particularly to first and last leaves, some occasional light toning affecting a few leaves, a little offsetting to plate VII but affecting only the fore-edge margin and not the image itself. Recent half light brown calf, raised bands gilt ruled, red morocco title label, marbled boards and edges, endpapers sympathetically replaced. Spine slightly rubbed with a few very light scratches, very good indeed.

Hyde's study of pre-Islamic religions in Persia is found here in its second edition, having originally been published in 1700 under the title Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum, Eorumque Magorum [?]. Illustrated with engravings by W.W. Ryland and M. Burghers, it contains 'Magorum liber Sad-der, Zoroastris praecepta et canones continens' (pp.[441]-512), a Latin translation from the Persian metrical paraphrase by Iranshah of the original Pahlavi. The appendix (pp.[513]-580) contains the first western publication of verse part form the Rubaiyat of Omar Kahayyam. 'The Historia was an attempt to present for the first time in Europe the beliefs of the ancient Zoroastrians of Persia through material acquired by Hyde from Parsis in western India by the good offices of men in the East India Company's service. Financially the book was a disaster. Hyde was 'left in the lurch' by promised subscribers, so that 'a great part of the charge fell upon myself' (letter to H. Sloane, 24 Jan 1701, BL, Sloane MS 4038, fol. 292), and he was warned that his book was not to the taste of 'the men of phantasy and the young fry of wits and poets' (Hyde, 2.492?3). The book gained in reputation after Hyde's death, however, to the point that a second edition was successfully issued in 1760.' (Marshall, ODNB)

Bibliography: ESTC T54341; Carter, Hist. of the Oxford University Press (1975), pp. 390-391.

Reference Number: [55066]

Price: £675

enquire

	Author: Hyde, Thomas: [Hunt, Thomas and Costard, George, eds.:] Title: Veterum Persarum et Parthorum et Medorum Religionis Historia. Publication: Oxonii [Oxford]: e Typographeo Clarendoniano, (1760). Description: Second edition. 4to., pp. [xl], 580 + 21 plates, as called for (in this copy, plates II and III have not been separated as instructed but are bound together as one leaf opposite p.113). Text in Latin with sections in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew and Persian. Light sporadic foxing particularly to first and last leaves, some occasional light toning affecting a few leaves, a little offsetting to plate VII but affecting only the fore-edge margin and not the image itself. Recent half light brown calf, raised bands gilt ruled, red morocco title label, marbled boards and edges, endpapers sympathetically replaced. Spine slightly rubbed with a few very light scratches, very good indeed. Hyde's study of pre-Islamic religions in Persia is found here in its second edition, having originally been published in 1700 under the title Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum, Eorumque Magorum [?]. Illustrated with engravings by W.W. Ryland and M. Burghers, it contains 'Magorum liber Sad-der, Zoroastris praecepta et canones continens' (pp.[441]-512), a Latin translation from the Persian metrical paraphrase by Iranshah of the original Pahlavi. The appendix (pp.[513]-580) contains the first western publication of verse part form the Rubaiyat of Omar Kahayyam. 'The Historia was an attempt to present for the first time in Europe the beliefs of the ancient Zoroastrians of Persia through material acquired by Hyde from Parsis in western India by the good offices of men in the East India Company's service. Financially the book was a disaster. Hyde was 'left in the lurch' by promised subscribers, so that 'a great part of the charge fell upon myself' (letter to H. Sloane, 24 Jan 1701, BL, Sloane MS 4038, fol. 292), and he was warned that his book was not to the taste of 'the men of phantasy and the young fry of wits and poets' (Hyde, 2.492?3). The book gained in reputation after Hyde's death, however, to the point that a second edition was successfully issued in 1760.' (Marshall, ODNB) Bibliography: ESTC T54341; Carter, Hist. of the Oxford University Press (1975), pp. 390-391. Reference Number: [55066] Price: £675 enquire << Back
	© Copyright 2026, all rights reserved Unsworth's Antiquarian Booksellers, 74 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 4PG