Cyrus et Milto ou La République.
Geneva: Chez J. J. Paschoud, Libraire, de l'Imprimerie de Luc Sestié, 1796 Stock Code: 130606
The ideal sovereign
First edition of Clavel d'Ussieres's political fable. Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, was metamorphosed into a philosopher king by Xenophon in his Cyropaedia of the fourth century BCE. Xenophon's Cyrus was a favourite of the mirror for princes genre, from the medieval period through to the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Clavel d'Ussieres's fable is a nod to the Cyropaedia, but instead takes Cyrus the Younger as his model, the subject of Xenophon's other great work, the Anabasis. In the fable, Cyrus is collecting his forces at Sardis to march on Babylon. Plato and the other Greek philosophers of the age discuss the grievances of Persia and project its future constitution, an elective aristocracy, with Cyrus (Milto being his mistress) offered as a model of an ideal sovereign. The book is scarce, with Library Hub locating 13 copies, of which just one is in British institutional holdings, in the British Library.Description
Octavo (216 x 138 mm). Uncut in original paper wrappers, manuscript title to spine.
Condition
Shelf label to front cover verso. Light chipping and creasing to wrappers, occasional faint staining around peripheries, a few instances of minor chipping around page extremities without loss to text. A very good copy in the fragile original wrappers.
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