The Histories

Limited to 750 hand-numbered copies
Bound in full-grain leather blocked in gold and black foils with a design by Nick Hayes
Limitation tip blocked in gold foil signed by Robin Waterfield, Nick Hayes and Peter Frankopan
Translated by Robin Waterfield
Introduced by Peter Frankopan
Editorial material by Carolyn Dewald
Frontispiece and nine two-colour illustrations by Nick Hayes
Two two-colour maps
824 pages set in Haarlemmer
Printed on Abbey Pure paper
Woodstock endpapers printed in gold with a design by Nick Hayes
Gilded page tops
Ribbon marker
11½" x 8"
Presented in a cloth-covered slipcase blocked with a design by Nick Hayes
Slipcase lining printed with a design by Nick Hayes

I appreciated the darkness of the period - half pagan and half animist - and representing a world with a genuine belief in gods

1. Nick Hayes

Each of the nine ‘books’ that make up The Histories opens with a magnificent double-page image produced by printmaker, graphic novelist, environmentalist and ‘professional trespasser’ Nick Hayes. Created using modern digital technology, these atmospheric illustrations simultaneously evoke the muscular figures and geometric designs of ancient Greek decorative pottery, recall the British linocut tradition embodied by Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious, and reflect Hayes’ own love of landscape and the natural world. His integrated illustrative scheme also includes gold-patterned motifs for the endpapers and slipcase lining, powerful black and gold images on the binding and slipcase, and an arresting frontispiece portrait of Herodotus based on an 18th-century sculpture.

For many, Herodotus is not just a great historian, but the first historian.

1. Peter Frankopan

The specially commissioned, exclusive new introduction by Professor Peter Frankopan gives both biographical details of Herodotus and context for The Histories. He is undoubtedly the ideal intermediary as his understanding of the rise and fall of empires, the connections between regions and cultures, and the fraught interaction of East and West have seen him dubbed ‘a Herodotus of the 21st century’.

Historians often like to think that they follow Herodotus' footsteps; but this magnificent volume is not just an inspirational book - it is a thing of beauty too

1. Peter Frankopan

Let us begin with the sumptuous full-grain leather of the binding, tanned using only vegetable products, aniline-dyed a magnificent teal and meticulously hand-polished by Harmatan and Oakridge in Northamptonshire, the traditional heartland of British leather production. The experts at Smith Settle in Yorkshire undertook the binding and the text was printed not far away in Sheffield. The green of the two-colour printing complements the binding perfectly and the paper is of course FSC certified, sourced only from responsibly managed forests. In addition to the illustrations, binding and slipcase designs, Nick Hayes has coloured the two maps by Kevin Freeman, to make them both more beautiful and more legible, something which Herodotus himself would surely have appreciated, having complained that 'not one of all the people who have drawn maps of the world has set it out sensibly'. And Peter Frankopan’s engaging new introduction is exclusive to this edition.

Herodotus wrote The Histories before the 'rules' of prose-writing had been established, and intended it for live public recitation as much as for private reading. Robin Waterfield's acclaimed translation is widely regarded as the authoritative modern rendering, balancing fluency with fidelity to the original text, capturing Herodotus' distinctive authorial voice while keeping him highly readable, and allowing ancient characters to talk directly to us across the millennia. This engaging text was originally published with an introduction by Professor Carolyn Dewald, and this is included here too along with a judicious selection from her notes and a helpful timeline by Peter O’Neill.

Each copy has been signed by three of our contributors – translator, illustrator and introducer – on a gold-blocked limitation label tipped on by hand facing Nick Hayes fabulous frontispiece portrait of Herodotus, based on an 18th^-century sculpture. The resulting volume will be a pleasure to look at and to hold, as well as to read, for many years to come.

Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University where he is also Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College Oxford and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research.

Described in The New Statesman as 'the history rock star du jour', he was named one of the world’s 50 top thinkers by Prospect Magazine in 2019 but is probably best known as the author of the prize-winning bestsellers The Silk Roads and The New Silk Roads.