[ΛΟΥΙΤΠΡΑΝΔΟΣ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΣ ΚΡΕΜΩΝΑΣ] Luitprandi Episcopi Cremonensis: [ΠΡΕΣΒΕΙΑ ΣΤΟΝ ΝΙΚΗΦΟΡΟ ΦΩΚΑ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΑ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ] Legatio ad Nicephorum Phocam Graecorum Imperatorem, together at head: [ΒΙΚΤΩΡΟΣ Επισκόπου Αφρικής Χρονικόν] Chronicon Victoris Episcopi Tunnunensis, togheter: [ΙΩΑΝΝΗ Επισκόπου Χρονικόν] Chronicon Ioannis Biclarensis Episcopi Gerun, Synodus Bavarica tempora Caroli Magni. Ingolstadii 1600 First editions of all four very important early works. Prepared by Pierre Canisius, the famous church historian of the time. In 4to (21 × 16 cm), contemporary full vellum, very lightly soiled. Complete: 148 pp. Text clean and bright, with some marginal notes in the Chronicon of Victor. All text in the original Latin. Overall a very good copy of a rare compilation, with fine provenance, as it belonged to the Jesuit College of Paris (inscription on title), dissolved in the 18th century. Luitprand of Cremona’s embassy to Nicephorus Phocas, then emperor in Constantinople, is a major primary source for 10th-century Byzantium and its relations with the West. Luitprand learned Greek during his first embassy to Constantinople in 949. In his later Antapodosis he provides a glowing account of the hospitality he enjoyed there, and describes with amazement the splendid ceremonies of the Byzantine palace. In 968 he was sent again to Constantinople to request, on behalf of the Western emperor, the hand of Anna Porphyrogenita. His account of this embassy is the most graphic and lively piece of writing from that period: a detailed description of Constantinople and the Byzantine court, though colored by his hostility toward the rival Eastern Roman Empire. His depictions of Byzantine Greeks were often unfair, yet his narrative remains a very valuable source for the society and state of that time. His purchases of purple textiles were eventually confiscated, and the mission ended badly. One of the very few surviving travel accounts of the Byzantine Levant. The Chronicon of Victor, bishop in Byzantine North Africa in the late 6th century, covers the invasion and conquest of Roman Africa by the Vandals up to its reconquest under Justinian (443–566). It is an important historical source, especially for relations between Constantinople and its distant provinces. A third chronicle, by the Visigoth bishop of Biclaro in Spain, also from the late 6th century, is the unique source for the Byzantine province of Spain (562–623) and for Byzantine Visigothic relations of the time. The fourth work records a church council in central Europe during the reign of Charlemagne. A unique compilation of early and highly valuable accounts for the Byzantine Levant.