ANIMAL RIGHTS Rescue/Humane Society/Italian Ed 1567

Pricing & History

Sold for
Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
Sold Date
Source eBay

VERY SCARCE, ORIGINAL 1567 EDITION OF: "ALCUNI OPUSCULI DE LE COSE MORALI DEL DIVINO PLUTARCO IN QUESTA NOSTRA LINGUA TRADOTTI". This important 16th century treatise was written by Plutarch and printed by Comin da Trino, Venice, Italy. Author was an ancient historian and essayist considered as "the most humane of all Greek writers." The present treatise contains a rare early edition of Plutarch's classic "Moralia", a collection of works on ethical, political, religious and literary topics. Included are writings in which Plutarch advocates for vegetarianism and the humane treatment of animals. Plutarch anticipated the modern animal rights movement, and "Moralia" is widely regarded as the first animal rights literature. OCLC lists only 4 known copies of this early Italian edition worldwide. [North American STC Italian, page 616]. "While some of the Roman Stoic contemporaries of Jesus, notably Ovid and Seneca, showed a greater compassion for animals than the founder of Christianity, the Greek Plutarch (A.D. 46-120) was the first to advocate ethical treatment for animals as ends in themselves rather than merely because they may be the repository of human souls (as Pythagoras argued)." [Preece and Chamberlain . Animal Welfare & Human Values. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1993]. "The moral duty of kindness to animals was in the first instance based upon a dogmatic assertion of the transmigration of souls, and the doctrine that animals are within the circle of human duty...Seneca for a time practised abstinence from the flesh. But the most remarkable figure in this movement is unquestionably Plutarch. Casting aside the dogma of transmigration...he places the duty of kindness to animals on the broad on the broad ground of the affections, and he urges that duty with an emphasis and a detail to which no adequate parallel can..be found in the Christian writings for at least seventeen hundred years. He condemns absolutely the games of the amphitheatres, dwells with great force upon the effect of such spectacles in hardening the character, enumerates in detail, and denounces with unqualified energy, the refined cruelties which gastronomic fancies had produced, and asserts in the strongest language that every man has duties to the animal world as truly as to his fellow-man." [Lecky , William Edward Hartpole. History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne, Vol. 2. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1869]. "Plutarch is the earliest classical author from whom there survives a work devoted entirely to the defence of the vegetarian lifestyle...His treatise 'De esu carnium' (On the Eating of Flesh)...is...invaluable for the insights it provides...into the breadth and variety of arguments that were marshaled in antiquity in defense of abstention. Not the least interest that the treatise holds...is its surprisingly 'modern' tone, since Plutarch builds a case for abstention that employs a number of aguments commonly encountered in the literature of the modern animal rights movement..." [Newmyer, Stephen T., Animals in Greek and Roman Thought. Abington, England: Routledge, 2011]. Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, (c.46-120 AD), was a noted Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his "Parallel Lives" and "Moralia". He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi. The first biographical works to be written by Plutarch were the Lives of the Roman Emperors from Augustus to Vitellius. Of these, only the Lives of Galba and Otho survive. The Lives of Tiberius and Nero are extant only as fragments, provided by Dasmascius and Plutarch himself, respectively. These early emperors’ biographies were probably published under the Flavian dynasty or during the reign of Nerva (CE 96-98). There is reason to believe that the two Lives still extant, those of Galba and Otho, ought to be considered as a single work. Therefore they do not form a part of the Plutarchian canon of single ... read more

Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.

Flag item for content or copyright

If this item contains incorrect or inappropriate information please contact us here to flag it for review.

If you are the originator/copyright holder of this photo/item and would prefer it be excluded from our community, contact us here for removal.