Religion & Philosophy - 89 - Bauman Rare Books “The Unfolding Of A Mind Of Genius In Dialogue With Itself”: Rare 1613 Second Edition In English Of Montaigne’s Essayes 86. MONTAIGNE. Essayes Written In French… Done Into English, according to the last French edition, by John Florio. London, 1613. Folio (8 by 11-1/2 inches), contemporary full brown calf rebacked and recornered. $16,000. Second edition in English of Montaigne’s seminal masterpiece, with the important Elizabethan translation of John Florio used by Shakespeare as a source for The Tempest (circa 1611), a work profoundly influenced by Lucretius, a splendid folio volume in contemporary calf boards. “Montaigne devised the essay form in which to express his personal convictions and private meditations, a form in which he can hardly be said to have been anticipated… He finds a place in the present canon, however, chiefly for his consummate representation of the enlightened skepticism of the 16th century, to which Bacon, Descartes and Newton were to provide the answers in the next” (PMM 95). Here is “the unfolding of a mind of genius in dialogue with itself and with the world” (Hollier, 250). “It is generally accepted that Shakespeare used Florio’s translation when writing the passage on the natural commonwealth in his Tempest” (Pforzheimer 378). Initially published in French in 1580, Montaigne’s Essayes were first published in English in 1603, with this translation. Frontispiece portrait of Florio by William Hole bound between Contents and first text leaf; containing general title page, separate title pages for the second and third books. With rear blank leaf, elaborate ornamental woodcut-engraved initials, headpieces throughout. ESTC S111840. Title page with contemporary owner signature dated 1614. Interior quite fresh with only minor expert archival repair to edges of title page and a few leaves not affecting text, lightest scattered foxing, faint rubbing to boards. A very handsome near-fine copy.
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