Rollin, Charles

Paris, Jacques Estienne 1732 Quatrieme edition, revüê, corrigée, & augmentée d'une table des matieres. XVIII, 118, (2), CXIV, 497, (12); (2), 640, (7); (18), 602, (8); (2), 815 pp. 4 volumes. Contemporary grey wrappers. Spines hand numbered, somewhat faded. Occasional light foxing throughout. Vol 1 with front hinge cracked, small paper loss at upper corner on last 10 leaves, vol 2 with light stain to title page and to part of lower edge at end half of book, vol 3 with weak stain to first leaves, vol 4 with light stains to beginning and end. Overall a good set.

After John Locke, Charles Rollin was probably the most authoritative writer on education in eighteenth-century Europe. While rector of the University of Paris, he turned his lectures into one of the most voluminous and popular works on education for years to come. He here explains his methods of teaching the classics, methods that drew liberally from Cicero, Horace, Seneca, Xenophon, Plutarch, Plato, and, above all, Quintilian. He explains how youth should be steered away from false images of "glory" presented by the culture and instead turn toward true glory and a correct taste as found in the great works of history and literature. In short, showing how the proper teaching of a canon of great works in school could achieve the same ends that Locke advocated in his system of private instruction.