The Works of Plato.

PLATO. TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY FLOYER SYDENHAM,.

Item Number: 100405

London: Various Publishers, 1759-1771.

Finely bound 18th century printing of Plato’s works. Quartos, 2 volumes, bound in full contemporary calf with gilt tooling to the spine in five compartments within raised gilt bands, red and green morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, double gilt ruling to the front and rear panels. Signed by the translator and editor, Floyer Sydenham on the dedication page. Containing: The Dialogues of Plato, A Synopsis or General View of the Works of Plato, Meno, A Dialogue Concerning Virtue, The Greater Hippias: Concerning the Beautifull, The Lesser Hippias: Concerning Voluntary and Involuntary Error, The Rivals Concerning Philosophy, The Banquet Concerning Love, and Proposals for a New Subscription. From the library of British Army officer Leonard Smelt who served as sub-governor to Frederick, Duke of York and the future George IV and became a close friend of Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith later in life with his bookplates to the pastedowns.  Subsequently, from the library of English churchman and academic Charles Henry Hall who served as the Dean of Christ Church from 1809 to 1812 with his bookplates to the front free endpapers. In very good condition with noted provenance. 

That Plato should be the first of all the ancient philosophers to be translated and broadcast by the printing press was inevitable. Plato’s central conception of a universe of ideas, Perfect Types, of which material objects are imperfect forms, and his ethical code based on action according to human nature, developed by education, which represents the authority of the State, fitted in as well with the philosophical, religious and political thought of western Europe in the 15th century, striving to free itself from the shackles of scholasticism, as it did with those of the Byzantine Greeks, by whom Plato was repopularized in the western world The dialogues are pervaded by two dominant impulses: a love of truth and a passion for human improvement" (PMM 27).