History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
13 (return) [ The particular historians and geographers will be
occasionally introduced. The four following titles represent the
Annals which have guided me in this general narrative. 1. Annales
Eutychii, Patriarchoe Alexandrini, ab Edwardo Pocockio, Oxon.
1656, 2 vols. in 4to. A pompous edition of an indifferent author,
translated by Pocock to gratify the Presbyterian prejudices of
his friend Selden. 2. Historia Saracenica Georgii Elmacini, opera
et studio Thomae Erpenii, in 4to., Lugd. Batavorum, 1625. He is
said to have hastily translated a corrupt Ms., and his version is
often deficient in style and sense. 3. Historia compendiosa
Dynastiarum a Gregorio Abulpharagio, interprete Edwardo Pocockio,
in 4to., Oxon. 1663. More useful for the literary than the civil
history of the East. 4. Abulfedoe Annales Moslemici ad Ann.
Hegiroe ccccvi. a Jo. Jac. Reiske, in 4to., Lipsioe, 1754. The
best of our chronicles, both for the original and version, yet
how far below the name of Abulfeda! We know that he wrote at
Hamah in the xivth century. The three former were Christians of
the xth, xiith, and xiiith centuries; the two first, natives of
Egypt; a Melchite patriarch, and a Jacobite scribe.]
14 (return) [ M. D. Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. pref. p.
xix. xx.) has characterized, with truth and knowledge, the two
sorts of Arabian historians—the dry annalist, and the tumid and
flowery orator.]
15 (return) [ Bibliotheque Orientale, par M. D’Herbelot, in
folio, Paris, 1697. For the character of the respectable author,
consult his friend Thevenot, (Voyages du Levant, part i. chap.
1.) His work is an agreeable miscellany, which must gratify every
taste; but I never can digest the alphabetical order; and I find
him more satisfactory in the Persian than the Arabic history. The
recent supplement from the papers of Mm. Visdelou, and Galland,
(in folio, La Haye, 1779,) is of a different cast, a medley of
tales, proverbs, and Chinese antiquities.]
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