GUNTERI ALEMANI SCHOLASTICI MONACHI et Prioris Parisiensis: De Expugnatione Urbis Constantinopolitane unde, inter alias reliquias, magna pars sancte crusis in Allemaniam allata seu Historia Constantinopolitana. Genevae 1875 First edition of the famous Gunther account on the capture and pillage of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204. Printed, according to the publisher’s note, in only 150 copies. In 4to (24 × 16 cm). Publisher’s hard paper covers with light wear, becoming loose at the upper hinge, almost detached. Text clean and bright, virtually as new. Complete: [24], 100, [1] pp. Overall a very good copy of a very rare publication. Gunther of Pairis, a German Cistercian monk, composed in the mid-13th century his history of the capture of Constantinople in 1204. His narrative is entirely based on the eye-witness testimony of Martin, abbot of Pairis Abbey, who personally took part in the Fourth Crusade, and includes a detailed description of the siege and looting of the city. It is the only Western account to state explicitly that the crusaders pillaged Greek churches, unlike Villehardouin and other chroniclers, who were themselves participants in the sack. Gunther emphasized the factual accuracy of his work, resisting a mere generalized attack on Greek character, and recording important details about the crusade and Constantinople not found in any other source (see Francis Swietek: Gunther of Pairis and the Historia Constantinopolitana, University of Illinois). Although fragments of Gunther’s writings were known since the Renaissance, this history was preserved only in a complex manuscript discovered in the mid-19th century and first published here in Geneva, in a scholarly edition limited to 150 copies.