Plutarch's Lives, Translated from the Original Greek; with Notes, Historical and Critical; and The Life of Plutarch. Carefully Corrected, and Printed from The Last London Edition. In Four Volumes.

Plutarch's Lives, Translated from the Original Greek; with Notes, Historical and Critical; and The Life of Plutarch. Carefully Corrected, and Printed from The Last London Edition. In Four Volumes. Langhorne, John and William (Eds.) 1825. Philadelphia: James Crissy.

8vo.(5" x 8.5") Four volumes complete. Full brown mottled leather. Spine with double gilt rule creating bands, gilt lettering to second and fourth compartment, others blank. All edges lightly speckled brown. Very minor edgewear, corners bumped, some rubbed. Boards with minor rubbing, upper board of V.IV with small divet, upper board of V.III with two small scuffs. Head of spine to V.II with small chip, tiny loss. Vols. II, III, IV with prior owners signature neatly in old ink to head of first free flyleaf, manuscript notes and sketch of dog to rear free endpaper of Vol.II. Some foxing , pages toned. A very nice looking set of books, Vol.I with an engraved frontispiece of Plutarch.

Complete four-volume 1825 Philadelphia edition of Plutarch’s Lives, translated from the original Greek by John and William Langhorne, with historical and critical notes and a life of Plutarch. Published by James Crissy and stated to be carefully corrected and printed from the last London edition.

Plutarch’s Lives is one of the foundational works of classical biography and historical writing. Composed as a series of paired biographies of prominent Greek and Roman figures, the work compares statesmen, generals, politicians, and other public figures not simply to record events, but to examine character, leadership, ambition, virtue, failure, and political power. Through figures such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, Pericles, and others, Plutarch helped shape how generations of readers understood the personalities behind the history of Greece and Rome.

This American edition presents that influential text in an attractive early nineteenth-century set. All four volumes are bound in full mottled brown leather with gilt-ruled spines and gilt lettering, with lightly speckled edges. Volume I retains the engraved frontispiece portrait of Plutarch. The set shows expected age-related toning and foxing, minor rubbing and edgewear, and a few small binding flaws as described, but remains a handsome and complete set.

Of particular interest are the period ownership marks and manuscript additions: Volumes II–IV bear an early owner’s signature, while Volume II contains manuscript notes and a small sketch of a dog on the rear free endpaper, giving the set an appealing trace of its nineteenth-century reading history.