Title: The epistles of Phalaris. Translated from the Greek. To which are added, Some Select Epistles of the most eminent Greek writers. By Thomas Francklin, M.A. Fellow of Trinity-College, Cambridge
Description: <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;">8vo. pp. [16], xxiii, [1], 224, f. [1] (plates). Calf. Dedication copy, inscribed by the dedicatee John Boyle (1707-1762), Fifth Earl of Orrery (who also subscribed for ten copies), ‘Orrery. The Gift of the Author. 1749.’</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;">Rare copy of Thomas Francklin’s 1749 credulous edition of the fake letters of the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris who had lived in the sixth century BCE. Boyle subscribed for ten more copies of the work, which asserted the letters’ authenticity, either for wider distribution, or if not also as an act of literary loyalty to his father Charles Boyle, Fourth Earl of Orrery. Early in Richard Bentley’s tenure as royal librarian, the credulous editor of Phalaris, Charles Boyle, Fourth Earl of Orrery, took offense when he felt he had been denied sufficient access to complete a collation of the Greek Phalaris manuscript in the Royal Library, publishing his discontent widely in print (see Bib# 4102610/Fr# 42 in this collection). Scandalized by Boyle, Bentley focused his energies, establishing the later dating of the text and positing the further likelihood that Phalaris was the pseudonym of a Hellenistic sophist writing eight centuries hence, possibly Adrianus of Tyre. Bentley’s “immortal dissertation” on Phalaris as the ultimate model of modern philological method.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;">The present work also contains the oration of the ambassadors of Phalaris, to the priests of Delphos, translated from Lucian, and select epistles from other eminent Greek writers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;">See also Bib# 7535810/Fr# in this collection for an illuminated manuscript containing real Renaissance Latin translations of newly-discovered fake ancient Greek ‘Epistolae’ of Phalaris. For additional works related to the pseudo-Phalaris Epistolae and the demolition of their authenticity, see also Bib# 4102606, 4102607, 794581, 10080580, 1204575, 4102609/Fr# 35-37; 39-41 in this collection; E. Havens, “Babelic Confusion. Literary Forgery and the Bibliotheca Fictiva,” in W. Stephens &amp; E. Havens (eds.), Literary forgery in early modern Europe, 1450-1800, Baltimore, 2018, p. 51; V. Hinz, Nunc Phalaris doctum protulit ecce caput: Antike Phalarislegende und Nachleben der Phalarisbriefe. Munchen, 2001; D. A. Russell, “The Ass in the Lion’s Skin: Thoughts on the Letters of Phalaris.” in: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 108 (1988), pp. 94-106; K. Haugen, Richard Bentley: Poetry and Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA, 2011; S. Gwara, Otto Ege's Manuscripts: A Study of Ege's Manuscript Collections, Portfolios, and Retail Trade, with a Comprehensive Handlist of Manuscripts Collected or Sold. Cayce, 2013, nr. 84.</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/permalink/01JHU_INST/1lu78g9/alma991032492419707861" rel="nofollow">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.</a></span></span></p>