Apuleius
£320
Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts
Auction: 10 September 2014 at 12:00 BST
Description
The metamorphosis, or golden ass and philosophical works of Apuleius; translated from the original Latin by Thomas Taylor. London, 1822. 8vo, contemporary half calf, marbled boards, green morocco lettering piece, with pages of suppressed passages at the end
Footnote
Note: "It was through Taylor's translations that the Romantic poets had access to Platonism: they are probably one of the sources of Blake's mythology, as well as his repudiation of the natural science of Bacon and Newton, and his late tempera painting The Arlington Court Picture was almost certainly inspired by Taylor's translation of Porphyry's On the Cave of the Nymphs; there is no doubt that Coleridge's acquaintance with Proclus was assisted by Taylor's translation and commentary, though Coleridge's appreciation of Taylor is invariably laced with acid criticism. Taylor's immediate influence in England was short-lived … His fate in America was very different. R. W. Emerson read Taylor's translations enthusiastically, and Taylor's influence was felt among Emerson's disciples, adepts of 'transcendental philosophy' such as Amos Bronson Alcott, William T. Harris, Thomas M. Johnson, Hiram K. Jones, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, though that influence had waned by the end of the century. Emily Dickinson, who was a friend of Higginson, therefore probably owed her Platonism ultimately to Thomas Taylor." (Oxford DNB)