THE PHILOSOPHIE, Commonlie Called, THE MORALS Written By the learned Philosopher Plutarch of Chaeronea. Translated out of the Greek into English, and conferred with the Latine translation, and the French, by Philemon Holland of Coventrie, Doctor in Physicke. Wherunto are annexed the Summaries necessary to be read before every Treatise.

Plutarch [Plutarchus]

Published by London Printed by Arnold Hatfield 1603

About this Item

The Rare First Edition in English. A copy with pleasing provenance, bearing the bookplate of the Davenport family, one of the oldest recorded families in the UK. Illustrated throughout with 5 and 9 line large decorated capital letters, and with elaborately engraved head and tailpieces. Large, Thick Folio, full contemporary calf, the covers with elaborately tooled central ornament gilt, the spine with blind tooled bands separating the compartments, one compartment lettered in gilt. [viii], 1363, [1], [64, Explanation, Index, Table, Errata] pp. A beautifully preserved, handsome, very clean, crisp and unpressed copy, the original decorated calf covers rebacked, two preliminary leaves with small unobtrusive paper supports to the verso of the leaves at the edge for strength. A RARE AND IMPORTANT CLASSICAL WORK IN THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION TRANSLATED BY THE ESTEEMED PHILEMON HOLLAND, TRANSLATOR OF A NUMBER OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CLASSICAL WORKS WRITTEN IN GREEK AND IN LATIN. Plutarch (c. A.D. 46-120), the Greek thinker and writer, wss born at Chaeronea in Boeotia. Trajan bestowed consular rank upon him and Hadrian appointed him procurator of Greece. He was initiated in the secret mysteries of Dionysius, which held the the soul was imperishable; but he was an independent thinker and seems not to have been an adherent of any particular school of philosophy. His vast acquaintance with the literature of his time is everywhere apparent. His celebrity rest especially upon his MORALIA and his forty-six PARALLEL LIVES. The design of the latter appears to have been the publication, in successive books, of authentic biographies in pairs, taking together a Greek and a Roman. The LIVES are works of great learning and research with long lists of authorities given. The Moralia was composed first, while writing the Lives occupied much of the last two decades of Plutarch's life. The MORALS (OPERA MORALIA) consists of a great number of essays. Their literary value is greatly enhanced by the large number of citations from lost Greek poems, especially verses of the dramatists, among whom Euripides holds by far the first place. It is an eclectic collection of seventy-eight essays and transcribed speeches, including "Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon" (a dialogue on the possible causes for such an appearance and a source for Galileo's own work), "On Fraternal Affection" (a discourse on honour and affection of siblings toward each other), "On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great" (an important adjunct to his Life of the great king), and "On the Worship of Isis and Osiris" (a crucial source of information on Egyptian religious rites); more philosophical treatises, such as "On the Decline of the Oracles", "On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance", and "On Peace of Mind"; and lighter fare, such as "Odysseus and Gryllus", a humorous dialogue between Homer's Odysseus and one of Circe's enchanted pigs. Some additional treatises are the following: ON THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN, HOW A YOUNG MAN OUGHT TO HEAR POETRY, ON THE RIGHT WAY OF HEARING, HOW A FLATTERER MAY BE DISTINGUISHED FROM A FRIEND, HOW TO GET BENEFIT OUT OF ENEMIES, ON HAVING MANY FRIENDS, PRECEPTS ABOUT HEALTH, ADVICE TO THE MARRIED, THE BANQUET OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN, ON FATE, ON THE GENIUS OF SOCRATES, THE CONSOLATION TO HIS WIFE, ON THE PRESERVATION OF THE SOUL, ON THE VIRTUES OF WOMEN and OF LOVE. But this represents only a small sample of the many works included in the Moralia . 'Plutarch's writings had an enormous influence on English and French literature. Shakespeare paraphrased parts of Thomas North's translation of selected Lives in his plays, and occasionally quoted from them verbatim Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalists were greatly influenced by the Moralia and in his glowing introduction to a later 19th-century edition, he called the Lives "a bible for heroes".] He also opined that it was impossible to "read Plutarch without a tingling of th.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE PHILOSOPHIE, Commonlie Called, THE MORALS Written By the learned Philosopher Plutarch of Chaeronea. Translated out of the Greek into English, and conferred with the Latine translation, and the French, by Philemon Holland of Coventrie, Doctor in Physicke. Wherunto are annexed the Summaries necessary to be read before every Treatise.
• Publisher: London Printed by Arnold Hatfield 1603
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition