STC 6578. Pforzheimer 284. Common institutionally but uncommon in the trade with the last few copies recorded on Rare Book Hub being defective, the George Goyder copy (in a later binding) sold at Skinner in 2018 for $5,228, the last copy before that was the Downshire copy (“early nineteenth-century calf gilt”) sold at Christie’s in 1996 ($2990).
*A very good copy, in a contemporary binding, of Thomas Wilson’s important translation of Demosthenes’s Orations, “*a thinly disguised political allegory suggesting the virtues of an interventionist foreign policy: the tyrant Philip II of Macedonis implicitly compared to Philip II of Spain” (ODNB).
Thomas Wilson (1523/4-1581) was educated at Eton and later Cambridge where he was strongly influenced by the protestant humanist John Cheke. After the accession of Mary I, Wilson went into exile in Italy and studied civil law at the University of Padua. Cheke was also on the Continent and Wilson attended his lectures on Demosthenes in 1555, these lectures were clearly an inspiration for this later English translation. While in Italy he suffered at the hands of the Inquisition and was tortured and imprisoned in Rome for nine months.
On his return from exile Wilson enjoyed the patronage of Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, Sir William Cecil (to whom this book is dedicated) and Sir Robert Dudley. He enjoyed many lucrative positions was made a Privy Council in 1577 and acted in an ambassadorial Rome conducting negotiations in the Low Countries and Portugal. His time served as a Privy Councillor coincided with a period of renewed tension with Spain and the unsettling negotiations surrounding the proposed marriage between Elizabeth and the French nobleman, Francis, Duke of Anjou. This translation of Demosthenes’s Orations, “typical of his concern to apply humanist learning in practical ways, in Wilson’s hands this work became a thinly disguised political allegory suggesting the virtues of an interventionist foreign policy: the tyrant Philip II of Macedonis implicitly compared to Philip II of Spain.” (ODNB)
Wilson is best known today for his The Arte of Rhetorique (1563) the first comprehensive English book on rhetoric.
Provenance: Edmund Col??? signate on the front pastedown and a note in the same hand on the final flyleaf “1577 Junio pr 4s. 2d”. Elizabeth Caldicott, signature on the rear flyleaf dated 1665. John Wade, numerous signatures by Wade including a large handsome caligraphic signature on the verso of the front flyleaf dated 1733 and two long ownership inscriptions (dated 1729). Sarah Wade, ownership inscription dated “Leeds, July 19th 1799” at the Golden Lion (a popular coaching inn).
