ARISTOTLE

£4,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

A magnificent sammelband of 5 books of Aristotle’s practical philosophy, together with some of his more obscure works, printed between 1566 and 1584. The binder, Heinrich Blume, was from Wittenberg, where there was a large university, suggesting that this collection may have been used as a textbook. While most of the works are definitively attributed to the ancient philosopher, the ‘Ἐθικα Μεγαλα’, ‘Ἐθικα Εὐδεμια’, ‘Μεχανικα’, and ‘Οἰκονομικα’, have also been ascribed to either his students or later authors. The first book is the first of an 11-volume series published between 1584 and 1587 described as ‘more excellent and complete than any that had been before published’. It features 5 texts: ‘Ἐθικα Μεγαλα’ encompasses discussion on a variety of themes, ranging from happiness to justice, pleasure, and friendship, taking into account the views of Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato. The less well known ‘Ἐθικα Εὐδεμια’ continues discussion of themes in the ‘Ἐθικα Μεγαλα’ and parallels topics found in his Nicomachean Ethics. The publication includes his shortest ethical treatise ‘Περι Ἀρετων και Κακιων’, as well as a text by his pupil Theophrastus, who studied at and later became head of Aristotle’s Lyceum, and by Alexander of Aphrodisias, a celebrated commentator on Aristotle’s writings. The introduction ‘makes a minute and elaborate detai

• Binding: Hardcover

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