"THE FATHER OF MODERN DEMOCRACY": 1598 FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF ARISTOTLE'S ENORMOUSLY INFLUENTIAL POLITICS

ARISTOTLE. Aristotles Politiques, or Discourses of Government. Translated out of Greeke into French… by Loys LeRoy, called Regivs. Translated out of French into English. BOUND WITH: TACITUS, Cornelius. The Annales of Cornelius Tacitus. The description of Germanie. BOUND WITH: The ende of Nero and beginning of Galba. London: Adam Islip / Arn. Hatfield for Bonham and John Norton / Edm. Bollifant for Bonham and John Norton, 1598. Small folio (7-1/2 by 11 inches), contemporary full calf rebacked.

First edition in English of one of the world's most important and influential political texts, "the most valuable work on that branch of philosophy that has descended to us from antiquity," Bound together with a first edition in English of Tacitus' Annales and a second edition in English of his Ende of Nero and Beginning of Galba.

Aristotle's Politics (written circa 350 B.C.) "is the most valuable work on that branch of philosophy that has descended to us from antiquity" (McCulloch, 356). 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). The work embodies "theories of perennial value, and refutations of fallacies which are always re-emerging" (Hazlitt, 36). 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). Bound together with a first edition in English of Tacitus' Annales and a second edition in English of his Ende of Nero and beginning of Galba. "Tacitus is the outstanding historian and the principal prose writer of the Silver Age of Latin letters… He is by far the most reliable authority for the history of the period. His own high position—he eventually rose to become Senator and Consul—gave him access to all the information which was not locked up in the imperial chancery" (PMM 93). Tacitus is a well-known source for Shakespeare's Henry V. Aristotle title page with woodcut-engraved device, woocut-engraved initials, head- and tailpieces. Aristotle with four-page table of contents and one-page errata at rear; pages 70 and 71 misnumbered 80 and 81, 178 misnumbered 173, 284 misnumbered 84, 378 misnumbered 376. Ende of Nero with signature H misbound between signatures B and C, text complete.The first edition in English of Ende of Nero was published in 1591. STC 760. Pforzheimer 10. Brueggemann, 184-85. CBEL I:800. Cox I:59. Harris, 14, Lowndes, 68. Palmer, 12. Smith, 31. See PMM 38, 94. Contemporary ink manuscript notes to front blanks, occasional marginal pencil notations.

Small ink stain to Aristotle title page, some minor marginal wormholing to signatures D through K; closed tear to top margin of Ee6, just affecting text, a few instances of light marginal dampstaining. Contemporary calf boards handsome. A very nice copy.