M.T. Cicero's Cato Major, or Discourse on Old Age. Addressed to Titus Pomponius Atticus. With explanatory notes by Benj. Franklin, LL.D.
London: Fielding and Walker, 1778. Leather_bound. Slim octavo in somewhat later three quarter black leather over marbled paper covered boards. Introduction by Franklin, index, 163 pp. the binding is well worn, there is an 1849 dated ownership signature on the front pastedown (probably when this binding was put on). Affixed to the rear pastedown is a handwritten 8-line poem "On Old Age" by Pherecrates. The text is clean and complete, offsetting to the title page. Despite the title, Franklin did not write explanatory notes for this book; he did, however, print it in Philadelphia in 1744 and at that time said that the translation and notes were done by James Logan. Logan, a Scotsman who emigrated to America in 1699, was the fourteenth mayor of Philadelphia (1722) and founder of the University of Pennsylvania. Franklin did provide the introduction for this edition, in which he infers but does not outright claim, to be the translator or author of the notes. Good. Item #E23156
Price: $300.00