March Auction
Lot 137:
18th C Philosophical Engraving with Portraits of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Manuscript Inscription
Description
Engraved philosophical sheet titled Philosophia Moralis, featuring ten oval portrait medallions of major classical and scholastic philosophers arranged around a central field. The sheet bears a contemporary Latin manuscript inscription, documenting its use as dictated academic material under Ludovicus des Fontaines, professor of philosophy and theology, and is dated 1736. The inscription records reception by a student at the Collège du Vieux Douai.
Details
Medium: Engraving with manuscript ink inscription
Date: 1736
Language: Latin
Dimensions: approx. 20 x 16 cm
Condition: Edge losses, creasing, staining and surface wear consistent with 18th-century academic use; inscription legible
Catalogue Note
Engraved philosophical sheets annotated with names of professors, students, institutions, and dates are rare survivals of early modern university teaching practices. The University of Douai was a major intellectual center in the 18th century, and dated examples such as this—clearly tied to moral philosophy instruction—are of strong interest to collectors of early academic material, works on paper, and the history of philosophy.
Share this lot:
