PLUTARCHUS (c. 45-c.120). The Philosophie, commonlie called, The Morals. Translated by Philemon Holland. London: Arnold Hatfield, 1603.

First edition in English of Plutarch's influential ancient essay collection, in a contemporary binding. The Moralia are here translated by Philemon Holland, one of "the stately array of folio translations of the classics which issued from the pens of the 'translator generall in his age'" (Pforzheimer). Holland's "knowledge of Greek and Latin was accurate and profound, and his renderings are made in a vivid, familiar, and somewhat ornamented English" (The Oxford Companion to English Literature). In the Dunciad, Pope describes groaning shelves bending under the weight of Holland's folios. Plutarch's writings, "perhaps more than the work of any other ancient writer, transmitted to Europe knowledge of the moral and historical traditions of the classical world, and influenced immeasurably its ways of thought" (Oxford Classical Literature). ESTC 20063; not in Pforzheimer, but see 495 for more on Holland as translator.

Folio (319 x 196mm). Woodcut head and tailpieces, woodcut initials, a few diagrams (lacking two leaves [pp. 473-476] in Customes and ordinances of the Lacedaemonians, a few short tears affecting text, a bit of dampstaining in gutter, occasional spots and stains, a few shoulder notes shaved). Contemporary calf gilt, edges yellow (rebacked, endpapers renewed). Provenance: some pencil annotations (trimmed) – W. J. Harris (bookplate).