This book is one of the earliest translations of Thucydides into English. Prior to this edition, works by classical authors were only available in Greek, Latin, or occasionally French. Such was the importance of having translations of classical works in English that Thomas Nicholls was granted a royal privilege to publish further translations uncontested for seven years. Nicholls had no knowledge of Greek and so translated his work from an earlier French edition by Claude de Seysell which had in turn been translated from Latin. It was this translating via a tertiary source which led Thomas Hobbes to criticise Nicholls' work in his 1676 English translation, the first to be translated directly from Greek.

Binding information

Bound in brown calf with roll tooling consisting of Tudor heraldic designs, arms of England, portcullis and fleur-de-lis.