Herodotus' work in the 1570 edition was shown at the State Archives of Prykarpattia. Photo.

The State Archives of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast houses the work of the famous ancient Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus, The History, written in the fifth century B.C. The 1570 edition is available in the reading room of the archive.

According to experts, this is an edited first edition in Greek, published in Geneva by a member of the famous French printing dynasty, Henry II Eten (Henricus Stephen). The State Archive emphasizes that this is the first historical work of the ancient world that has come down to us, GALKA.IF.UA reports.

The Facebook page of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast State Archives notes that the original cover, made of Moroccan leather and embossed with a gilded crown, has unfortunately not survived to this day.

The first page of the work features an engraving of an olive tree with the Latin motto NOLI ALTUM SAPERE ("Do not be arrogant", "Do not be great"). According to experts, this is a shortened version of St. Paul's letter to the Romans 11:20: "Noli altum sapere sed time" ("Do not be arrogant, but fear").

According to the State Archive, Herodotus' monumental work is devoted to the history of the Greco-Persian wars and describes the countries and peoples who fought the Persians. This is not only the first historical work of the ancient world to have come down to us, but also the first monument of fiction in the history of ancient literature.

The book contains a wealth of geographical, ethnographic, natural history, and literary information about the Persian kingdom, Egypt, Scythia, and other kingdoms and lands.

Scholars emphasize that the work was originally titled "History" (Greek: research, study). However, in the third century BCE, Alexandrian scholars divided it into nine books, each named after one of the nine muses.

"For us, Herodotus' History is an invaluable source, which for the first time describes in detail the Ukrainian lands and the peoples who lived on them. It is here that the rivers Istre (Danube), Borysfen (Dnipro), and Hyparis (Southern Bug) are described in detail, which is why Herodotus is sometimes called the founder of geographical Ukrainian studies. It allows us to get an idea of the peoples and tribes that inhabited our lands at that time, to learn more about the hermitages of the so-called ancestors of our nation, and to understand where we ultimately come from, where our roots come from, who were our ancestors," the State Archive explains.

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