“
. . . I have been amusing myself latterly with reading the voluminous letters of Cicero. they certainly breathe the purest
effusions of an exalted patriot, while the parricide Caesar is left in odious contrast. when the enthusiasm however kindled
by Cicero’s pen & principles subsides into cool reflection, I ask myself what was that government which the virtues of Cicero
were so zealous to restore, & the ambition of Caesar to subvert? . . . but steeped in corruption, vice and venality as the
whole nation was, (and nobody had done more than Caesar to corrupt it) what could even Cicero, Cato, Brutus have done, had
it been referred to them to establish a good government for their country? they had no ideas of government themselves but
of their degenerate Senate, nor the people of liberty, but of the factious opposition of their tribunes . . . I confess then
I can neither see what Cicero, Cato & Brutus, united and uncontrouled, could have devised to lead their people into good government,
nor how this aenigma can be solved . . .
”
This edition by Robert Foulis of the
Opera Omnia of Cicero was based on the edition of Olivetus, q.v. no. 4913.
Jefferson owned a number of the separate works of Cicero, for which, see the Index.
[4912]
25
Not in the Manuscript Catalogue.
1815 Catalogue, page 169, no. 32, Ciceronis opera, Oliveti, 9 v 4to.
CICERO,
Marcus Tullius.
M. Tullii Ciceronis Opera, cum delectu Commentariorum. Edebat Josephus Olivetus . . . Editio
Tertia, emendatissima.
Genevae: apud
Fratres Cramer,
1758.
9 vol. 4to. Titles printed in red and black, notes below the text, ornamental head and tail pieces and initials. A copy was
not available for examination.
This edition not in Graesse and not in Ebert.
Dibdin I, 404.
Pierre Joseph de Thoulié, 1682-1768, was born in the Jura Mountains. He entered the Jesuit novitiate on December 2, 1698, but left the order in 1716
before he had taken his final vows, and took the name of the Abbé d’Olivet. The first edition of his Cicero was printed in
1742, and was undertaken by him without compensation out of admiration for Cicero. The
Clavis Ernestina
accompanies the editions of this work.
[4913]
26
Gassendi opera.
6. v.
fol.
1815 Catalogue, page 169, no. 42, as above.
GASSENDI,
Pierre.
Petri Gassendi Diniensis Ecclesiæ Præpositi, et in Academia Parisiensi Matheseos Regii Professoris Opera Omnia in
Sex Tomos Divisa, Quorum seriem pagina Præfationes proximè sequens continet. Hactenus edita Auctor ante obitum recensuit, auxit, illustrauit.
Posthuma verò totius Naturæ explicationem complectentia, in lucem nunc primùm prodeunt, ex Bibliotheca illustris Viri Henrici Lvdovici Haberti Mon-Morii Libellorvm Svpplicvm Magistri . . .
Lvgdvni: Sumptibus
Lavrentii Anisson, &
Ioan. Bapt. Devenet.
m. dc. lviii
. Cvm Privilegio Regis. [1658.]
B1882 .A2 1658
First Edition. 6 vol. folio. Titles printed in red and black, with printer’s woodcut device, general title in Vol. I only; contents
of the volumes on the separate titles, viz. Vol. I and II, Syntagmatis Philosophici; Vol. III, Opuscula Philosophica; Vol.
IV, Astronomica; Vol. V and VI, Animadversiones in Decimvm Librvm Diogenis Laertii, qvi est De Vita, Moribus, Placitisque
Epicvri; engraved portrait frontispiece in Vol. I, by Nanteuil; text in double columns throughout. In the copy in the Library of Congress Vol. V and VI (the latter with half-title only)
were printed in
Lvgdvni: Sumptibus
Francisci Barbier,
m. dc. lxxv
.
Graesse III, 33.
Ebert 8179.
