Diogenis Laertii De Vitis, Dogmatibus et Apophthegmatibus Clarorum Philosophorum Libri X.

Amstelaedami: Apud Henricum Wetstenium, 1692. Later edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 2 vol. 4to. [16], 672; 590, [56] pp. Contemporary full vellum, spines in seven compartments, each spine with a maroon morocco label lettered in gilt. Fore-edge and bottom textblock decoratively speckled. Both volume's title pages printed in red and black. Volume one illustrated with twenty-five copper-engraved plates (portraits of select philosophers), and with an engraved title page. With the text in ancient Greek and Latin. Includes helpful annotations and notes from the Casaubonius brothers, and with notes from Aldobrandinius. The Latin corrected and completed by Marcus Meibomius. Volume two contains the Syntagma de Mulieribus Philosophis (a compendium of biographical notices of female philosophers and historical figures), volume two also has notes on the philosophers and notes on the life of Diogenes Laertius (including the notes of Kuhnius). With several indices. Brunet II 93. Dibdin 503-504. Graesse 396. Moss 400. Oxford Classical Dictionary 474-475. Brunet calls this edition the most complete and the most beautiful of Diogenes' Lives. Moss refers to it as a rare, elegant, and excellent edition, with the most correct and critical revision of the Greek text. Dibdin praises it as the best and most splendid extant edition of the author's works. Diogenes Laertius' Lives were likely composed around the middle of the third century A.C.E. Diogenes writes about philosophers from Ionia, the pre-Socratics, and about a few Stoic figures. His biographies span from Thales to Epicurus. He names his historical sources, and his work is quite copious in its list of quotations and its references to other writers. Diogenes' work on the Stoic philosophers and on Epicurus is particularly valuable from a historical perspective. A lovely edition of ancient Greek and Roman history, with some of Renaissance Europe's greatest classicists contributing to its production. The front flyleaf of volume two is slightly misaligned, and the second volume's rear hinge shows a tiny split and a repair, not affecting the integrity of the binding.