[De Officiis].

a father's advice to his son

Cicero's most important contribution to moral philosophy, variously rendered in English as On Duties or Obligations.

The text is written in the form of a letter to his son Marcus, who was studying philosophy in Athens under the Platonist Antiochus. Influenced by the teachings of the Stoic philosopher Panaetius, the work aims to help guide us towards a compromise between honourable conduct and actions which bring us private advantage. In doing so, Cicero makes his notable appeal to natural law: 'for men to injure and wrong one another for their private interests, is an evil that nature is much more averse from, than all those which happen to the body or fortune' (p.220).

The text, written between October and November 44 BC, also contains a famous denunciation of Julius Caesar, assassinated in March that year, along these grounds: 'such an inclination had the man to villany, that the bare doing of it was a pleasure to him' (p.198). De Officiis has remained popular ever since — it was the third book to be printed after the Gutenberg Bible and Ars Minor, and was long regarded as essential reading in humanist circles, and a mainstay of English public school education in the seventeenth century.

With excellent provenance for General Robert Taylor (1760-1839), who was second in command of British forces at the Battle of Balinamuck in 1798, and later for the Marquesses of Headfort.

Seventh edition; 12mo (16.5 x 10.5 cm); woodcut device to title, bookplates to front pastedown, front free endpaper recto, and to title verso; early 19th-century diced calf, covers ruled in gilt, gilt spine in 5 compartments, gilt arms of General Robert Taylor to upper compartment, contrasting black morocco lettering-piece, marbled edges, a little rubbed, covers slightly bowed, very good; xiv, 292, [18]pp.

ESTC T138929.