PROSOPOGRAPHIA: OR, SOME SELECT POURTRAITURES AND LIVES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES

PLUTARCH, and Andre Thevet.  PROSOPOGRAPHIA: OR, SOME SELECT POURTRAITURES AND LIVES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES, bound with THE LIVES OF THE NOBLE GRECIANS & ROMANS. Two works in one volume.

Cambridge: John Hayes, 1676-1686. Folio. Contemporary full-calf. Frontispiece, (vi), 1-92; (xii), 1-96, 101-104, 101-104, 109-333, 336-337, 336-443, 446-798, 797-798, 799-1030, (56) pages, with 106 initials, 75 headpieces, and 25 in-text engravings.

A composite work composed mainly of Plutarch's great biographical opus magnus bound with Andre Thevet's Prosopographia, written in imitation of Plutarch's work, with numerous biographies of later classical, medieval, and even contemporary American personages (including Cortez, Columbus, and Gutenberg among the twenty-five biographies and portraits).  Thevet is translated into English by George Gerbier, and Plutarch is translated into English by Roger North -- the last complete edition of North's translation.  While the pagination is erratic, the text is complete.  Plutarch's works were popular in colonial Virginia library, as his works were throughout America and Europe.  Among the major Virginia libraries that owned copies of Plutarch's Lives, are those of Thomas Jefferson, William Byrd, and Robert Carter.  Later armorial bookplate; later period manuscript note attached to front blank leaf; some pencil bibliographical notations in text.  Professionally rebacked in style of original binding.

 

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