[Meditations].

bound by Riviere & Son

A lovely example of this important work of Stoic philosophy, finely bound in half vellum gilt by Riviere & Son, offering a fascinating insight into the mind of the last of Rome's Five Good Emperors, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (AD 121-180).

Marcus Aurelius composed his Meditations between 170 and 180 AD as a private work, intended for his own moral guidance and self-improvement. The first definite mention of the text was made by Arethas of Caesarea in the 10th century, who sent a copy of the Emperors' '[writings] to himself' to Demetrius, Archbishop of Heracleia sometime before 907 AD. Although now lost, this edition is considered the likely source of the two extant manuscripts on which the present-day text is almost entirely based. The work survives to offer us a unique insight into the mind of a Roman emperor and 'philosopher king'.

12mo (16 x 10.5 cm); photo-lithographed frontispiece, ownership inscription in pen to front free endpaper recto, slight offsetting to title; contemporary half vellum by Riviere & Son, green cloth boards, spine tooled in gilt, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece, top-edge gilt, a little marked, very good or better; xlii, 167, [1]pp.