B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 4 24 "OVERFLOWED WITH ANECDOTES OF LUST, VIOLENCE, AND IDIOSYNCRASY": SUETONIUS' HISTORY OF TWELVE CAESARS, TRANSLATED BY PHILEMON HOLLAND, HANDSOMELY BOUND 24. SUETONIUS (HOLLAND, Philemon, translator) (FREESE, J.H., editor). History of Twelve Caesars. Translated by Philemon Holland (Anno 1606). London, circa 1920. Octavo, contemporary full tan polished calf gilt. $1200 Later edition in English of Suetonius’ dramatic biographies of the Caesars, the important Holland translation, handsomely bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. “De Vita Caesarum, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, is largely responsible for that vivid picture of Roman society and its leaders, morally and politically decadent, that dominated historical thought until modified in modern times by the discovery of nonliterary evidence. The biographies are organized by topics: the emperor’s family background, career before accession, public actions, private life, appearance, personality and death… The earlier lives down to Nero, especially those of Julius Caesar and Octavius Caesar, are much the fullest, perhaps because as an antiquarian Suetonius was drawn to the documentary byways of an earlier age… [it is] exciting reading” (Britannica). “Classical ‘lives’ became prototypes for later writings about individuals. A rival for Plutarch was Suetonius (flourished A.D. 112121), whose Lives of the Caesars overflowed with anecdotes of lust, violence, and idiosyncrasy” (Boorstin, The Creators, 586). Holland was considered the “translator general in his age… while the plague raged at Coventry [where Holland lived] in 1605-06, Holland translated Suetonius’ Historie of Twelve Caesars” (DNB). The work was Robert Graves’ primary inspiration for his novel I, Claudius (1934). Holland’s translation was first published in 1606. Bookplate. Text fine, joints expertly repaired. An excellent copy.
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