"THERE WAS NO GREATER STATESMAN AND PHILOSOPHER THAN CICERO" (JOHN ADAMS): HISTORIAN WILLIAM GUTHRIE'S INFLUENTIAL 1755 TRANSLATION OF CICERO'S DE OFFICIIS (OFFICES), CATO MAJOR, LAELIUS, PARADOXES, VISION OF SCIPIO & QUINTUS UPON THE DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE, ISSUED TOGETHER IN ONE VOLUME IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME

CICERO. M. T. Cicero His Offices…, His Cato Major…, His Laelius…., His Moral Paradoxes, The Vision of Scipio…, His Letter Concerning the Duties of a Magistrate. Translated into English by William Guthrie, Esq. London: T. Waller, 1755. Octavo, contemporary full polished brown calf rebacked in calf-gilt, red morocco spine label, raised bands, original endpapers preserved; pp. (4), (i) ii-xxiv, (1) 2-400.

First edition of Guthrie's key translation of six major works by Cicero, prominently featuring Cicero's De Officiis (Offices) together in one volume in English for the first time with Guthrie's translations of Cato Major, Laelius, Paradoxes, Vision of Scipio, and Quintus upon the Duties of a Magistrate.

Cicero was highly "influential in Augustine's appreciation of philosophy, in Aquinas' view of the natural law, he appears in Limbo in Dante's Inferno, and he had a pronounced effect on the Enlightenment" (Anderson, Natural Moral Law, 72). He is considered "the first important social and political theorist to postulate the moral equality of humans, a notion basic to the theory of natural law and justice which he derived from Stoicism" (Wood, Cicero's Social and Political Thought, 90). "The thinking of… Bolingbroke, Locke, Hume—is also indebted to Cicero" (Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation II:541).

To John Adams, "there was no greater statesman and philosopher than Cicero" (McCullough, John Adams, 375). This volume, containing six works by Cicero each translated by English historian William Guthrie, leads with Cicero's Offices upon the Moral Duties of Mankind (De Officiis), written in the last year of his life. Jefferson owned several works by Cicero, including a copy of De Officiis in Latin (Sowerby 1314-1318). To many scholars, of all Cicero's late works, "the most significant for his political theory is his Offices, which details the character traits essential for leaders in society… That philosophy includes political and legal theories that stress the basis of society, laws, and the state to be found in nature and natural law… not in whatever legislation happens to be put into effect at a particular time and place" (Radford, Cicero, 2-3). "The great event that throws its shadow over Offices is the assassination of Caesar on the Ides of March 44 BC. Not only is Cicero at pains to justify the deed, over and over again, as tyrannicide, but he never misses an opportunity to castigate Casesar, by name or anonymously, for his unlawful ambitions, his demgoguery" (Griffin & Atkins, eds. On Duties, xii). To A.A. Long, "the De Officiis, not the De Re Publica, is Cicero's Republic'"(Stanford Encyclopedia).

"Just before Caesar's murder on the Ides of March in 44 BC, Cicero turned to the subject of old age in a short treatise titled De Senectute [Cato Major]… Cato shows how old age can be the best phase of life for those who apply themselves to living wisely" (Freeman, Introduction to 2016 ed, xi). In addition to Offices [De Officiis) and Cato Major, included are Laelius, Paradoxes, Quintus and Vision of Scipio. These important translations by Guthrie, a friend and colleague of Samuel Johnson, were early praised as "meticulous" (Steiner, English Translation Theory); they led the way for Guthrie's "followers" Rutherford, Duncan and Melmoth (Oxford Guide:541). With woodcut-engraved initials, head- and tailpieces; bound without half title, advertisement leaf. ESTC T136977. Brüeggemann, 501-2. Moss I: 354. Lowndes, 460. Early owner signature above title page; Latin quote in an unidentified hand to initial blank. Armorial bookplate. Scant marginalia to a few leaves.

Text fresh with light scattered foxing, mild rubbing to boards.