Title: De Officiis>>ART NOUVEAU BINDING<<
Publisher: Arthur L. Humphreys, London, UK.
Publication Date: 1902
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
8vo. 278 printed pages. All edges gilt. Inner gilt double fillet and single fillet borders and corner decorations. Scattered spotting throughout. 18 x 22 cm. Contemporary unsigned full crushed tan morocco Art Nouveau binding possibly by Hatchards. Spine with raised bands, gilt titling and date, compartments with single gilt fillet borders and corner decorations. Boards with leaf and berry gilt cornerpieces, titling and multiple gilt fillet borders (some very small blemishes). Cicero wrote On Obligations (De Officiis) in late 44 BC after the assassination of Julius Caesar to provide principles of behavior for aspiring politicians. It has subsequently played a seminal role in the formation of ethical values in western Christendom. Adopted by the fourth-century Christian humanists, it became transmuted into the moral code of the high Middle Ages. Thereafter, in the Renaissance from the time of Petrarch, and in the Age of Enlightenment that followed, it was given central prominence in discussion of the government of states. Today, when corruption and conflict in political life are the focus of so much public attention, On Obligations is still the foremost guide to good conduct. This new edition is based on a more systematic examination of the vast manuscript tradition than has previously been attempted, and shows with new clarity the major contribution to the improvement of the text made by scribes and readers of the later manuscripts, both in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance. Seller Inventory # 5209