Cicero
On Duties
Translated by Walter Miller, 1913
What this is
Cicero’s last philosophical book, written for his son in the months after Caesar’s murder: what is honourable, what is useful, and what to do when they seem to conflict. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance read it as the handbook of a gentleman, and it was one of the first classical books to be printed, at Mainz in 1465.
How it is set
One leaf per book, with the sections numbered inside it as Long numbers them. A section of Marcus is often three lines, and a page holding three lines is not a page.
What is not here
Notes. These books have the text and nothing else at present — no map, no lives, no commentary. The Gospel of St Luke shows what an annotated book looks like on this shelf, and these will follow it. An empty heading is better than invented filler.