Amongst the beautiful old tomes in Archives & Special Collections sits a 1538 edition of Plutarch’s Lives. The work explores the actions of Themistocles, Pericles, Aristides, Alcibiades, Coriolanus, Demosthenes, Cicero, Caesar, and Antony in eleven sections. It is both a history and a type of moral guide, as Plutarch highlighted the moral value of each man’s life.
This magnanimous volume is written completely in Latin – it was translated by Girolamo Birago and Donato Acciaiuoli, amongst others – and the page margins contain notations in Italian and Greek. The first letter of each chapter is carefully hand-detailed and accompanied by vines, flowers, or a small human figure. Red and black marbled patterns cover the book’s cover and text blocks.
For those interested in Classics or the Latin language, this volume is a beautiful and intriguing source of material. Consider its age, author, and content, and imagine the lives of those who have also read this book in its half-millennium lifespan! Visit Plutarch in the Archives, and you will find yourself beside a provocative piece of the past.
By Maya Steinborn