Veterum Persarum et Parthorum et Medorum Religionis Historia.
Oxford Typographeo Clarendoniano 1760
Second edition 4to, pp.[40], 580, 21 plates, 5 folding. A superb copy bound in contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt.
Thomas Hyde, Oxford Orientalist and divine, was the first westerner to make a serious study of the Zoroastrian religion. He researched in Greek, Latin and Arabic sources, and made use of the few Zoroastrian texts he could get hold of. Although later scholars have criticised this work it was an admirable pioneering effort, and virtually the only book on old Iranian religions available in the eighteenth century. The first edition was published in 1700. The two appendices to this second edition are: Magorum Liber Sad-der, Zoroastris Praecepta et Canones Continens: In usum Ecclesiae Magorum & Fidelium eorum omnium, and, Historiae Religionis Veterum Persarum Appendix, Continens Aliquot Tractatiunculas seu Dissertationes, in quibus paulo uberius tranctatur Pauca quaedam, tantum leviter tacta in superiore Opere.