Ioannis Cantacuzeni Eximperatoris historiarum Libri IV 3 Volume Set

This three-volume work of Byzantine history by the ex-Emperor John VI Cantacuzene was edited, together with a Latin translation by the Jesuit scholar, Pontanus (1542-1626), by Ludwig Schopen (1799-1867), and published between 1828 and 1832. It covers part of the same period as the works by George Pachymeres and Nicephorus Gregoras (also reissued in this series) and the three accounts can usefully be compared. John Cantacuzene (c. 1292-1383) was unusual among Byzantine emperors in that he appears to have been reluctant to take the throne, and also in that, having been deposed in 1354, he was allowed to retire to a monastery, where he wrote this account of his times. The historian Edward Gibbon, among others, noted the self-justificatory tone of his memoir. Volume 1 includes the life of John by Pontanus, and describes the years 1321-41, Volume 2 covers 1341-7 and Volume 3, 1347-57.