The Works of Aristotle.

ARISTOTLE; TRANSLATED BY THOMAS TAYLOR,.

Item Number: 81275

London: Robert Wilks, 1806-12.

Exceptionally rare complete set of the first edition in English of the works of Aristotle, limited to only 50 sets. Quarto, 11 volumes. Bound in full contemporary calf by J. Mackenzie, Bookbinder to the King. Gilt leaf and flower borders on covers, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, morocco spine labels, ribbon book marks bound in, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.  The set composes of the following: Volume 1: The Organon, 1807, signed at the end by the translator Thomas Taylor, and with A Brief Notice of Mr. Thomas Taylor, the Celebrated Platonist, with a Complete List of his Published Works, by J.J. Welsh. Volume 2: The Rhetoric, Poetic, and Nichomachean Ethics, 1811. Volume 3: The Great and Eudemian Ethics, the Politics and Economics Volume 4: The Physics, 1806, signed by Thomas Taylor on the last page. Volume 5: The Treatises on the Heavens, on Generation, and Corruption, and on Meteors, 1807, folding plate of mathematical figures. Volume 6: The History of Animals and Treatise on Physiognomy, 1809. Volume 7: The Treatises on the Parts, and Progressive Motion of Animals, Problems; and His Treatise on Individual Lines, 1810. Volume 8: The Treatises on the Soul; on Sense and Sensibilities; on Memory and Reminiscence; on Sleep and Wakefulness; on Dreams; on Divination by Sleep; on the Common Motion of Animals; on the Generation of Animals; on the Length and Shortness of Life; on Youth and Old Age, Life and Death; and on Respiration, 1808. Volume 9: The Metaphysics, 1812. Volume 10: A Dissertation on the Philosophy of Aristotle, by Thomas Taylor, 1812. This set includes an 11th volume being Taylor’s first edition of The Metaphysics, 1801 containing an extensive introduction and notes. Lowndes, p. 68: “Of this valuable translation, the only complete one extant in the English language. Fifty copies only were printed at the expense of William Meredith, Esq.” In near fine condition with only light toning. Complete sets are of the utmost rarity; rare and desirable set of this landmark work.

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. 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).