M. Tullii Ciceronis opera Quae Supersunt Omnia
by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106BC-43BC) was a Roman statesman, politician, orator and writer.[1] He distinguished himself in the practice of law before entering politics and winning the consulship in 63BC.[2] As head of the Senate he thwarted the Catilinarian conspiracy to seize control of the government and struggled to uphold republican ideals amidst the civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic.[3] With Caesar’s rise to power he ended his political career and devoted himself to writing, producing such works as Consolatio, Hortensius, De Natura Deorum' and the Tusculan Disputations.[4] He was executed at the behest of Mark Antony, whom Cicero had criticized publicly, when Octavian rose to power.[5]
Cicero is considered the foremost Roman orator; his style, which became known as Ciceronian rhetoric, was the primary rhetorical model for centuries.[6] Among his greatest works are his Catilinarian orations, the Phillipics delivered against Mark Antony, and his political works De Legibus, De Re Publica and De Oratore.[7] Cicero’s primary contribution to philosophy was bringing Greek ideas into Latin, allowing Rome to develop its own philosophical traditions.[8] He had a lasting impact on Renaissance and early modern thinkers, including Locke, Montesquieu and Hume.[9] Cicero’s conception of rationally-discernible natural law influenced America’s founders, including John Adams, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson.[10] Jefferson explicitly named him as helping establish a notion of “public right” that influenced the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution.[11]
Bibliographic Information
Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Title: M. Tullii Ciceronis opera Quae Supersunt Omnia: ad Fidem Optimarum Editionum Diligenter Expressa.
Published: Glasguae: In Aedibus Academicis, Excudebant Rob. et And. Foulis, 1748-1749.
Edition: First Foulis edition; twenty volumes.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as Ciceronis opera. Lat. 20.v. 16[mo?]. Foulis and given by Thomas Jefferson to his son-in-law and nephew, John Wayles Eppes. The 1748-1749 edition is the only 20 volume Latin edition published by Foulis. Both Brown's Bibliography[12] and George Wythe's Library[13] on LibraryThing include this edition.
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in contemporary full polished calf with speckled edges. Purchased from Rose's Books.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, s.v. "Cicero, Marcus Tullius," accessed October 9, 2013, http://www.credoreference.com/entry/ebconcise/cicero_marcus_tullius.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy, s.v. "CICERO, Marcus Tullius (106-43 B.C.E.)," accessed October 9, 2013, http://www.credoreference.com/entry/cwclassical/cicero_marcus_tullius_106_43_b_c_e.
- ↑ Philip's Encyclopedia, s.v. "Cicero, Marcus Tullius," accessed October 9, 2013, http://www.credoreference.com/entry/philipency/cicero_marcus_tullius.
- ↑ Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.
- ↑ Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Walter Nicgorski, "Cicero and the Natural Law" Natural Law, Natural Rights and American Constitutionalism (National Endowment for the Humanities, n.d.), accessed Oct. 9, 2013, http://www.nlnrac.org/classical/cicero.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
- ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on October 9, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe
