218 - PLUTARCH and AMYOT, Jacques. Illustrious Men of Greece and Rome. [With] Moral and Miscellaneous Works.

PLUTARCH and AMYOT, Jacques. Illustrious Men of Greece and Rome. [With] Moral and Miscellaneous Works. Paris, Antoine Robinot, 1645. In-4 (34.5 x 23 cm), full tan calfskin, ribbed spine, pasted-on title label, and gilt fillets. 4 uncollated vols. Bindings damaged (scuffing and losses). A few faint foxing spots. A very fine edition of Jacques Amyot’s French translation of the “Lives of Illustrious Men,” richly illustrated with an engraved portrait of the Duke of Enghien as well as numerous portraits in the text derived from ancient medals. Each figure is described with a biographical note (including a chronology marking the key periods of their lives). His Lives constitute a vast collection of biographies of great men in history, almost all presented in pairs (with a Greek figure always juxtaposed with a Roman one). Included in a uniform binding are the “Moral and Miscellaneous Works” (2 vols., same publisher and date), a collection of seventy-eight varied texts by Plutarch on ethics, politics, religion, philosophy, literature, and history in the form of dialogues, letters, or essays.