[Classics] De Officiis Libri Tres Cato Major, Laelius, Paradoxa, Somnium Scipionis. Ex recensione Ioannis Georgii Graevii cum ejusdem notis, ut & integris animadversionibus Dionysii Lambini, Fulvii Ursini, Caroli Langii, Francisci Fabritii Marcodurani, Aldi Manutiim nec non selectis aliorum

Amstelodami [ Amsterdam ]: Ex typographia P. & I. Blaeu, prostant apud Wolfgang, Ianssonio-Waesbergios, Boom, à Someren, & Goethals, 1688. Vellum. Good. 8vo.,[xvi], 688, [64] Index, [ii] (blanks), [2]-452, [16] Index; contemporary full vellum somewhat soiled and darkened; ex-library label removed from spine; ex-library stamps and markings to top edge, front pastedown, and title leaf; library pocket and bar code label to rear pastedown; a sound, tight reader's copy. Separate additional engraved title. Properly withdrawn. Vellum. "De Officiis (On Duties or On Obligations) is a 44 BC treatise by Marcus Tullius Cicero divided into three books, in which Cicero expounds his conception of the best way to live, behave, and observe moral obligations. The work discusses what is honorable (Book I), what is to one's advantage (Book II), and what to do when the honorable and private gain apparently conflict (Book III). For the first two books Cicero was dependent on the Stoic philosopher Panaetius, but wrote more independently for the third book...The work's legacy is profound. Although not a Christian work, St. Ambrose in 390 declared it legitimate for the Church to use (along with everything else Cicero, and the equally popular Roman philosopher Seneca, had written). It became a moral authority during the Middle Ages. Of the Church Fathers, St. Augustine, St. Jerome and even more so St. Thomas Aquinas, are known to have been familiar with it. Illustrating its importance, some 700 handwritten copies remain extant in libraries around the world dating back to before the invention of the printing press. Only the Latin grammarian Priscian is better attested to with such handwritten copies, with some 900 remaining extant. Following the invention of the printing press, De Officiis was the third book to be printed-third only to the Gutenberg Bible and Donatus's "Ars Minor", which was the first printed book." (wikipedia) First Graevii edition, followed by another more "correctly printed" in 1691 and a later 1710 edition "much enlarged" (Dibdin I-415). (Inventory #: 27985)