FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706-1790) – CICERO, Marcus Tullius (106-43). Cato Major. Translated by James Logan. Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin, 1744.

First edition, first state of a classic work printed by Benjamin Franklin—copy once belonging to Christopher Marshall, a leader in the American Revolution. This translation of Cicero's dialogue on old age is generally recognized as Franklin's typographic masterpiece and regarded as one of the foremost examples of American printing of the eighteenth century. In the prefatory "The Printer to the Reader," Franklin claims that the book has the distinction of being "the first translation of a classic in this western world." It was something of a labor of love—Miller notes that "it was, after all, a courteous gesture to an old friend and all elderly gentlemen to print a famous essay on old age in type large enough that persons with failing eyesight could still read it." Church 949; Evans 5361; Miller 347; Norman 484; Sabin 1304

Quarto (193 x 126mm). Title printed in black and red (a little foxed around the edges). Contemporary calf gilt (nearly rebacked preserving original spine panel and endpapers; surface abraded). Half morocco pull of case and chemise. Provenance: Christopher Marshall, 1709-1797, druggist, delegate to the Philadelphia Provincial Council in 1776, and appointee to the Continental Committee of Council and Safety. His war diary was printed in 1839 as The Remembrancer (signature on title).