The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Glasgow: Robert Foulis, 1742.
First Foulis Press edition. 12mo. [2], 295, [1], 296–308, [3] pp., including advertisements. Cancel title-page and engraved frontispiece. Contemporary sprinkled calf, likely a Foulis Press binding, spine divided into six compartments by raised bands and decorated in gilt with Saltire-cross motifs; red morocco lettering-piece and sprinkled edges.
Binding rubbed and abraded, with loss at foot of spine. Occasional light browning. A worm track affects the fore-edge margin of approximately the first twenty leaves without loss of text. Engraved bookplate to front pastedown and old ownership stamp to front free endpaper. Very Good.
An exceptional association copy from the library of Andrew Lumisden (1720–1801), private secretary to Prince Charles Edward Stuart—“Bonnie Prince Charlie”—during the Jacobite Rising of 1745.
Printed by Robert Foulis at Glasgow in 1742, this important edition of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations uses the English translation traditionally attributed to Scottish Enlightenment philosophers Francis Hutcheson and James Moor. It was among the early productions of the celebrated Foulis Press.
Lumisden joined the Jacobite cause following Charles Edward Stuart's arrival in Edinburgh and served as the Prince's private secretary throughout the campaign. After Culloden he escaped Scotland, was attainted for treason, and ultimately entered the service of the exiled Stuart court in Rome.
Of particular significance, surviving correspondence records Lumisden specifically requesting that “M. Antoninus' Meditations” be sent to him from his library while he was living in exile. The present volume therefore has an unusually direct connection to Lumisden's documented intellectual life rather than merely bearing his provenance.
Lumisden later became a prominent antiquary and founding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, corresponding with figures including James Boswell, Joseph Banks, and Adam Smith.
A remarkable convergence of Stoic philosophy, the Scottish Enlightenment, and Jacobite history: the first Foulis edition of Marcus Aurelius from the library of Bonnie Prince Charlie's private secretary, who specifically recorded his desire to have the Meditations sent to him during his exile.
Provenance: Andrew Lumisden (1720–1801)
ESTC T98333; Gaskell 14.
Price: $12,500.00