The epistles of Phalaris. Translated into English from the Original Greek. By J. S. Together with an appendix Of some other Epistles lately Discovered in a French MS
by S., Phalaris (pseud.), of Samosata Lucian
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8vo. ff. [2] (blank), [1], pp. [i-]vi, iii-xiii, [1], 223, [1]. Signatures: A3 a7 B-P8. Contemporary sheep.
Very rare first edition, first issue of this new translation from the Greek of the enduringly popular letter-essays attributed to Phalaris, tyrant of Agrigentum (6th century BC), which are in fact of the second century AD, possibly by the Hellenistic sophist Adrianus of Tyre. “J.S.", later to be identified, in a cancel title, and in the author's own defense of Bentley against Boyle's "Short Account" (cf. A. T. Bartholomew, Richard Bentley, D.D.: A Bibliography of his Works and of All the Literature Called Forth by his Acts or his Writings. Cambridge, 1908, p. 124), as one Solomon Whately, an undergraduate at Magdelen College, tells us that he undertook his translation from the Greek out of curiosity, having been "pleasantly entertained" by the "brisk debate [...] concerning the author of the following Epistles," observing that interested readers had no English text easily available, whereby to judge their literary merit, which of course the brilliant scholar Richard Bentley had derided. The present work including reprints of two short ‘Phalaris’ texts by Lucian (‘from the Edition of Lucian’s Works already published in English’), and an ‘Appendix’ containing a spoof French analogue, allegedly discovered in manuscript while ‘rummaging among a parcel of old Books under a Counter.’
This copy is one of three 1699 issues of the book, of which ESTC locates copies at Folger and Huntington only.
For other works related to the pseudo-Phalaris Epistolae and the demolition of their authenticity by Richard Bentley, see also Bib# 4102606, 4102607, 971306, 10080580, 1204575, 4102609, 4102610/Fr# 35-36; 38-42 in this collection; E. Havens, “Babelic Confusion. Literary Forgery and the Bibliotheca Fictiva,” in W. Stephens & E. Havens (eds.), Literary forgery in early modern Europe, 1450-1800, Baltimore, 2018, p. 51; V. Hinz, Nunc Phalaris doctum protulit ecce caput: Antike Phalarislegende und Nachleben der Phalarisbriefe. Munchen, 2001; D. A. Russell, “The Ass in the Lion’s Skin: Thoughts on the Letters of Phalaris.” in: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 108 (1988), pp. 94-106; K. Haugen, Richard Bentley: Poetry and Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA, 2011; S. Gwara, Otto Ege's Manuscripts: A Study of Ege's Manuscript Collections, Portfolios, and Retail Trade, with a Comprehensive Handlist of Manuscripts Collected or Sold. Cayce, 2013, nr. 84.
Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.
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