One of the most influential thinkers throughout history, Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. in Stagira, an ancient Greek city located in the northeastern region of modern-day Greece. When he was seventeen, Aristotle traveled to Athens in order to study at Plato’s Academy. He remained at the Academy until Plato’s death in 348 B.C. In 343 B.C., Aristotle was recruited to educate king Alexander the III, who would one day be revered as “Alexander the Great” for his immense conquests throughout Europe and Asia. Later in Aristotle’s life, he established his own school called the Lyceum which educated students in a wide array of subjects from rhetoric to philosophy to the natural sciences.

Rare 16th century printing of Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics. Quarto, bound in contemporary parchment over handmade paper-covered boards.

Aristotle is considered one of the first logicians, developing his own system of logic that is still taught today. The fourteenth-century philosophy Ramon Lull was so influenced by Aristotle’s logic that he used it to develop one of the first primitive computing machines that could be considered a precursor to the modern computer. In the 1514 printing of Aristotle’s “Posterior Analytics,” a major component of Aristotle’s system of logic is shown, in which he discusses demonstration, definition, and scientific knowledge.

Aristotle’s Politics (written circa 350 B.C.) is one of the most widely read texts of classical political theory, so much so that it deserves a respected place alongside other eminent political texts such as Plato’s Republic and Augustine’s City of God. It marks “a genuine attempt at political science. Aristotle shows the ways in which oligarchies fall, and the variety of situations that may follow. He goes through the likely causes of revolution. He is conscious of classes and their interests” (Levi, 403).  Aristotle’s history of mature Athenian democracy and the development of that city-state’s constitution greatly influenced modern political philosophy. Politics had a particularly profound effect on the formation of the United States government: Jefferson had a copy of LeRoy’s French translation in his library (Sowerby 2347), and many of the basic tenets of the U.S. Constitution derive directly from Aristotle, making him in some sense “the father of modern democracy” (PMM 94).

First edition in English of Aristotle’s A Treatise on Government. Quarto, bound in three quarters leather over marbled boards.

The 1776 translation by William Ellis of Aristotle’s Politics was the first direct into English translation from the original Greek of Aristotle’s Politics (Loys Le Roy translated this work into French, which was subsequently translated into English in 1597. Ellis’ translation is considered more accurate, and for many the most important translation in bringing Aristotle’s treatise to enlightenment statesmen and philosophers. The bibliographer Lowdnes notes that Ellis work appeared in this quarto edition 1776 priced at 15 shillings, and was reprinted (with little change) in 1778.

Exceptionally rare complete set of the first edition in English of the works of Aristotle, signed by the translator Thomas Taylor in volumes one and four.

Aristotle’s Complete Works constitute all of his writings which have survived, most of which would have been used as curriculum in his school. The early nineteenth-century set translated by Thomas Taylor is the first English translation of Aristotle’s complete set of writings. The volumes in this set include topics such as Aristotle’s use of logic (these works are often referred to as the Organon), his ethics (such as his Nicomachean Ethics), his instruction on writing and prose (such as his Rhetoric), along with many other works in fields such as physics, biology, and philosophy.

Aristotle taught at the Lyceum until 323 B.C., at which time he was forced to flee to Chalcis due to political issues in Athens. He died in Chalcis the following year. Despite writing over two thousand years ago, Aristotle’s influence has continued unabated in numerous areas of study. The renowned Medieval scholastic Thomas Aquinas had such admiration for Aristotle that he referred to him as “The Philosopher.”

First editions in English of each volume of the Works of Aristotle (The Metaphysics of Aristotle is the 1812 preferred edition).

Aristotle’s philosophical works covered an incredibly broad range of subjects including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, rhetoric, politics and government; constituting the first comprehensive system of Western Philosophy. Through these many branches, Aristotle sought the universal; his aim was to discover the essential nature of being, becoming, existence and reality which he believed could be achieved through detailed systems of logic and classification. Aristotle’s works on natural history, particularly observations of the sea-life visible from the island of Lesbos, are some of the earliest known to have survived and include one of the earliest classification systems.

First edition in English of the Metaphysics of Aristotle.

Aristotle’s Metaphysics is considered to be his principal work as well as the first major work in metaphysical philosophy itself. “It forms the highest step in Aristotle’s system, and deals with the first principles of all existence. Here he grapples with the deepest questions of philosophy” (Peck, 130). Translated by Thomas Taylor, a leading English classicist of the day. “In his knowledge of Plato and Aristotle he has never been equaled by any Englishman, and he is still the most important disseminator of ancient philosophy in the history of English and American literature” (Axon, 11).

In addition to the works featured above, our collection currently includes several 15th and 16th century printings of Aristotle’s works. Browse all of the works related to Aristotle currently in our collection here.