Plutarch's Morals. PLUTARCH.

COMPLETE IN FIVE VOLUMES, BUT NOT TRANSLATED BY DRYDEN

Plutarch's Morals: Translated from the Greek by Several Hands. The Third Edition Corrected and Amended.

Engraved frontispiece in each volume.

Five volumes. 8vo. [185 x 112 x 165 mm]. [11]ff, 544pp; [7]ff, 527pp; [3]ff, 551pp; [3]ff, 552pp; [3]ff, 552pp. Bound in contemporary sprinkled calf, the covers with a blind fillet border and a blind floral roll running parallel to the spine. The spines divided into five panels with raised bands, numbered in gilt in the second, the edges of the boards tooled with a gilt roll, plain endleaves, red sprinkled edges. (Short cracks in joints and a little rubbed).
London: printed by tho. Braddyll, and are to be Sold by most Booksellers in London and Westminster, 1694.

Vols 1 (Wing P.2643) and 2 (P.2646) are designated as the third edition, and vols 3 (P.2649), 4 (P.2651) and 5 (P.2653) as the second edition. The volumes were issued separately as well as together, and complete sets are rare. They were first published in 1684, and again in 1690, 1694, 1704 and 1718.

Very good clean copies of all five volumes, with each title inscribed in ink "No.19 / Cost 50 Stuivers / Tho. Agnew". The Stuiver is a Dutch currency, posing the question of where these volumes had been before. The bindings appear to be English.

The Epistles Dedicatory are signed by M. Morgan (vol.1), George Tullie (2), Charles Barcroft (3), Robert Midgley (4) and Sam White (5). The translators are listed as Dr. Ford, Dr. Dillingham, Mr. Hoy, Mr. Patrick, Mr. Pulleyn, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Morgan, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Hinton, Dr. Poole, Mr. Hartcliffe, Dr. Chauncey, Mr. Creech, W.G., Roger Davies A.M., Simon Ford D.D., Mr P. Lancaser, Mr. Tullie, Mr. Chetwood, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Tod, Mr. Thomson, Mr. Dowel, Charles Hances Esq, Robert Midgley, Mr. Richard Brown, Mr. John Oswald, Sir A.J., Mr. John Kersey, Mr. A.G., Samuel White M.D., Mr. E. Smith, Mr. R. Kippax, Charles Barcroft, F. Fetherstone D.D., R. Smith M.A. and R. White M.A. A bookseller has written a pencil note in vol.1: "John Dryden's translation complete in 5 vols. £2/15s". John Dryden was the translator of Plutarch's Lives, published in 1683.

Stock no. ebc8286