THE THOMAS TAYLOR SERIES

A complete and uniform edition of all the published works of Thomas Taylor the `English Platonist', sewn hardback in modern type face on wood-free paper

Vol. I  Proclus' Elements of Theology
143pp ISBN 1 898910 00 6            £16

This is one of the great books of the Platonic Tradition. Its scope is the whole sphere of `Authentic Reality' which Plato recommends to all who aspire to wisdom, and which Plotinus outlines in his Enneads. It takes as its starting point The One - the highest and most abstract idea that the human mind can affirm, - and follows dialectically the unfolding of this through division, analysis, demonstration, and definition. It shows how The One is perfectly manifest in the Gods, and then how it `descends' while at the same time remaining exempt, at each succeeding level of intellect, soul, and body. A work of unequalled dialectic.
(Also available in paperback, ISBN 1 898910 61 8, price £9)

Click here for an extract (9 Kb) from The Elements of Theology

Vol. II Select Works of Porphyry
248pp ISBN 1 898910 01 4        £20

Contains three works: Abstinence from Animal Foods; in which aspiring philosophers are shown how to apply philosophical ideas and concepts in a practical way in their daily lives. A learned and wide ranging individual, Porphyry presents us with an insight in to many cultural traditions which had their expressions in the Classical world. Auxiliaries to the perception of Intelligible Natures; clearly reveals his position in the succession of later Platonists: He stands between Plotinus (whose Enneads he collected and arranged), and Proclus. The careful way in which this work explores its subject is perfected in Proclus' Elements of Theology. Concerning Homer's Cave of the Nymphs; the third work in this volume, Porphyry unfolds the allegories hidden in a small section of the Odyssey: a beautiful blend of myth and philosophy. Taylor's Allegory on the Wanderings and Trials of Ulysses is written in the same spirit, and completes this volume.

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Vol. III Collected Writings of Plotinus
490pp ISBN 1 898910 02 2             £21

Reprints, for the first time, all the known translations of the Enneads by Thomas Taylor. Originally published in five separate books, the Prometheus Trust makes them all available together in one volume. Plotinus stands as the great reviver of Platonism as a living philosophy, and a true basis for real mystical development. From his inspiration and work arose a line of profound thinkers, whose works remain a high-water mark in the religious and philosophical achievements of humanity. This new edition comprises 27 treatises on such subjects as, - The Good, The Immortality of the Soul, Providence, Dialectic, Virtue, Felicity, Eternity and Time, The Nature and Origin of Evil, Matter, and Intellect. Included are Taylor's lengthy introductions and notes, an invaluable aid to the student of Plotinian writings.

Click here for an extract (43 Kb) from Collected Writings of Plotinus  

Vol. IV Collected Writings on the Gods and the World.
272pp ISBN 1 898910 03 0            £20

This presents several texts dealing with the philosophic view of The Gods and their providential relationship with manifestation. It includes, - Sallust, On The Gods and the World; The Pythagoric Sentences of Demophilus; Taurus, On the Eternity of the World; The Thema Mundi of Julius Firmicus Maternus; The Emperor Julian's Oration to the Mother of the Gods; and To the Sovereign Sun; Synesius' On Providence; and two essays by Taylor, On the Mythology of the Greeks; and On the Theology of the Greeks . An indispensable and accessible introduction to Greek theology.
(Also in paperback: ISBN 1 898910 64 2, price £12) 

Click here for an extract (77 Kb) from Collected Writings on the Gods and the World

Vol. V Hymns and Initiations
340pp ISBN 1 898910 04 9            £20

Reprints the 1824 second edition of Taylor's Mystical Hymns of Orpheus, of 87 hymns together with a dissertation on the life and theology of Orpheus, and extensive additional notes replete with the translators insights into the Orders of The Gods. The essay which accompanied the 1787 first edition, and which is substantially different from that of the 2nd edition, is added here. Also included: Six hymns of Proclus; Boethius' `Hymn to Jove'; Emperor Julian's `To the Mother of The Gods'; Eighteen hymns by Thomas Taylor; and a simplified initial guide to the Greek Theogony by the editors.  This is our second edition of this work, which now includes a set of seven hymns by Thomas Taylor previously only published in a 1930's magazine.

Click here for an extract (74Kb) from Hymns and Initiations

Vol. VI The Dissertations of Maximus Tyrius
330pp ISBN 1 898910 05 7               £21

This is the first reprint of Taylor's original translation produced in two volumes in 1804; but published here as one volume. Maximus Tyrius was a leading `Middle-Platonist', who lived and worked in a period prior to that of the great Plotinus. His 41 dissertations, supplemented with Taylor's additional notes, deal with some profound philosophical and moral problems in a simple, but delightful and approachable manner. The Triumph of the Wise Man over Fortune, an essay by Taylor, is also included in this volume as an appendix.

Click here for an extract (92Kb) from The Dissertations of Maximus Tyrius

Vol. VII Oracles and Mysteries
260pp ISBN 1 898910 06 5               £18

This volume includes:- The Chaldean Oracles , compiled by Taylor from various texts & textual references; The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries; The History of the Restoration of the Platonic Theology; and Hermeas' Platonic Demonstration of the Immortality of the Soul, from his scholia on the Phaedrus.

Click here for an extract (31Kb) from Oracles and Mysteries

Vol. VIII Proclus' Theology of Plato.
730pp ISBN 1 898910 07 3           £28

This volume retains all of Taylor's introduction, notes, and his reconstruction of the lost seventh book. It is an essentially religious work;- a near perfect attempt to express in a manner accessible to the reasoning mind, the universal order in, of, and around, all things. As such, Proclus' masterpiece is pan-cosmic in its scope, illuminating for us the Principles which produce, vivify, and perfect the whole of Being, Life, Intellect, Soul, Nature, and Body, while suspending all these from one exempt and superessential Unity, called The ONE and The GOOD, which all things abide in, proceed from, and return to. It has been called one of the Great Scriptures of the world. Although the sublime genius of Proclus can be seen at its best in this `magnum opus', Taylor's translation is, unbelievably, still the only one available. This is the first full republication of his original two-volume work, published by us in one volume.

Click here for an extract (147kb) from The Theology of Plato

THE WORKS OF PLATO

(volumes IX to XIII in the Thomas Taylor Series: Vol. Nos. in brackets indicate Taylor's original Vol. Nos.) All Volumes have had the relevant pagination (e.g. Stephanus, etc.) added to the body of the text, along with extensive footnote references. The Commentaries (as additional notes) have also received the same attention where possible.

Click here for more information about Taylor's Works of Plato

Click here for extracts (138kb) from Taylor's Works of Plato

Click here for the Seventh Book of The Republic (which starts with the famous passage "The Cave"

Click here for the dialogue The Epinomis

Vol. IX ( Work of Plato Vol. I)

600pp ISBN 1 898910 08 1                £30

Comprises:- Taylor's General Introduction and Glossary of Greek Terms; Olympiodorus' Life of Plato; First Alcibiades complete with almost all of Proclus' Commentary on the First Alcibiades as endnotes. The Republic, and a substantial amount of Proclus' Commentary on The Republic as endnotes. Two of Taylor's articles written after the publication of this volume, relevant to the above dialogues.

Vol. X (Works of Plato Vol. II)
600pp ISBN 1 898910 09 X               £30

The Laws, Taylor has added an account of the Festivals of the Ancients, excerpted from The Descriptions of Libanius. Epinomis; The Timaeus,to which Taylor added excerpts from Proclus' Commentaries on the Timaeus, as additional notes; and The Critias.

Vol. XI (Works of Plato Vol. III)
607pp ISBN 1 898910 10 3                £30

The Parmenides, complete with most of Proclus' Commentaries on the Parmenides as additional notes; The Sophista; The Phaedrus, with a considerable portion of The Scholia of Hermias on the Phaedrus as additional notes. The Greater Hippias; The Banquet (Symposium). Included are two articles by Taylor relevant to these dialogues.

Vol. XII (Works of Plato Vol. IV)
582pp ISBN 1 898910 11 1               £30

The Theaetetus; The Politicus, additional notes by Taylor from Proclus' Theology of Plato Lib. V; The Minos; The Apology of Socrates; The Crito; The Phaedo, with extensive additional notes from Olympiodorus' Commentary on the Phaedo, and Damascius Commentary on the Phaedo; The Gorgias, with the Introduction and the additional notes taken from The Scholia of Olympiodorus on the Gorgias; The Philebus, with notes and additional notes from Olympiodorus; The Second Alcibiades.

Vol. XIII (Works of Plato Vol. V)
696pp ISBN 1 898910 12 X               £30

The Euthyphro; The Meno, with Sydenham's original diagrams and additional notes; The Protagoras (Sophist); The Theages; The Laches; The Lysis; The Charmides; The Lesser Hippias, with extensive additional notes; The Euthydemus; The Hipparchus; The Rivals, with extensive additional notes by Sydenham; The Menexenus, with additional notes; The Clitopho; The Io, with extensive additional notes by Sydenham and Taylor; The Cratylus, with extensive notes from Taylor, Proclus, and Julian; Proclus' Scholia on the Cratylus, (practically the whole); The Epistles of Plato. Included is an article by Taylor and an Index to the notes contained in the Works of Plato.

Click here for an extract (138 Kb)from the Works of Plato

Vol. XIV Apuleius' Golden Ass and other Philosophical Writings
350pp ISBN 1 898910 13 8                       £18

The Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass of Apuleius; On The God of Socrates; and, On the Philosophy of Plato. This last consists of three books, on Cosmology, Ethics, and Logic (the `Peri Hermenaius'). Also included is Taylor's poetical paraphrase of the speech of Diotima in Plato' Banquet.

Click here for an extract (58 Kb) from Apuleius' Golden Ass and other Philosophical Writings

Vols. XV & XVI Proclus' Commentary on the Timaeus of Plato
ISBNs 1 898910 14 6 and 1 898910 15 4

With pagination added from Diehls Basil edition, with Taylor's extensive footnotes and references, together with over 1500 extra references added by the Prometheus Trust. A subject index is also included. In two volumes, each being 544pp and priced at £26 (but remember our discount!)

Also available in paperback, ISBNs 1 898910 75 8 (volume I) and 1 898910 76 6 (volume II) - price £18 each.

Click here for an abstract (111Kb) from Proclus' Commentary on the Timaeus of Plato

Vol. XVII Iamblichus On the Mysteries and Life of Pythagoras

450pp ISBN 1 898910 16 2                          £23

With pagination added from Pathay/des Place and many extra cross-references, this edition of On the Mysteries will be of interest to all those who value the ancients wisdom of theurgy, divination and true worship. Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras is included in this volume together with over 40 fragments from the writings of the Pythagoreans of antiquity.

Also available in paperback, ISBN 1 898910 77 4, price £17

Click here for an abstract (27Kb) from Iamblichus on the Mysteries

Vol. XVIII Essays and Fragments of Proclus
280 pp  ISBN 1 898910 17 0                           £17

Containing the following:- On Providence, Fate, and That Which is in our Power; Ten Doubts Concerning Providence, and Their Solution; On the Subsistence of Evil, (By `subsistence' Taylor means `substantial reality'); Remaining Fragments of Lost Works of Proclus. All of which have the relevant pagination and extensive footnote references added. Marinus' Life of Proclus. Also added are seven recently discovered hymns and prayers of Thomas Taylor

Click here for an abstract (19Kb) from Essays and Fragments of Proclus and Simplicius' Commentary

Vol. XIX The Works of Aristotle I (The Physics)
610pp ISBN 1 898910 18 9                    £27

The first of ten volumes of Aristotle, this volume contains his Physics and over 400 pages from Simplicius' Commentary. These extracts from the Commentary give a unique insight into the Platonic understanding of Aristotle; many passages of the Commentary are unavailable in translation.

Click here for an abstract (34Kb) from The Physics and Simplicius' Commentary

Vol. XX The Works of Aristotle II (The Organon)
 704pp ISBN 1 898910 19 7                    £27

This volume comprises all the logical treatises of Aristotle - The Categores, On Interpretation, The Prior Analytics, The Posterior Analytics, The Topics, and the Sophistical Elenchi; Taylor adds much commentary from Porphyry, Simplicius and Amonius.

Click here for an extract from The Organon

Vol. XXI The Works of Aristotle III (The Magna Moralia, etc)
 400pp ISBN 1 898910 20 0                    £27

This volume contains the Great Ethics (or Magna Moralia) together with the Eudemian Ethics, the Politics and the Economics.

Vol. XXII The Works of Aristotle IV (The Rhetorics, etc)
 450pp ISBN 1 898910 21 7                    £27

This volume contains the Rhetorics, the Nichomachean Ethics and the Poetics.

Vol. XXIII The Works of Aristotle V (The Metaphysics, etc)
 600pp ISBN 1 898910 22 7                    £27

This volume contains the Mataphysics together with extensive commentaries from both Alexander of Aphrodisiensis and Syrianus; the Mechanical Problems; On the World; Against the Dogmas of Xenophanes, Zeno and Gorgias; On Virtues and Vices; and the extant fragments On Audilbles.

Vol. XXIV The Works of Aristotle VI (De Anima, etc)
 450pp ISBN 1 898910 23 5                    £27

This volume contains the On the Soul with much of the commentary of Simplicius; Sense and Sensibles, Memory and Reminiscence; Sleep and Wakefulness; On Dreams; On Divination by Sleep; On the Common Motion of Animals; On the Generation of Animals; On the Length and Shortness of Life; On Youth and Old Age; On Life and Death; On Respiration .

Vol. XXV  The Works of Aristotle VII  (On the Heavens)
570pp ISBN 1 898910 24 3                      £27

This volume contains On the Heavens with most of the Commentary of Simplicius (some of which is not available in any other English translation), On Generation & Corruption; On Meteors, including the Commentary of Olympiodorus.

Vol. XXVI  The Works of Aristotle VIII  (The History of Animals)
350pp ISBN 1 898910 25 1                     £27

This volume contains The History of Animals and the Treatise on Physiognomy.

Vol. XXVII  The Works of Aristotle IX (The Parts of Animals, etc)
570pp ISBN 1 898910 26 3 X                      £27

This volume contains The Parts of Animals, The Progressive Motion of Animals, TheProblems, On Indivisible Lines.  .It also includes Taylor's treatise On the True Elements of Arithmetic of Infinites

Vol. XXVIII  A Dissertation on the Philosophy of Aristotle
350pp ISBN 1 898910 27 8                     £27

A dissertation in four books: in the first two, Taylor summarises the important dogmas of Aristotle, showing how their significance is deliberately obscured by Aristotle, and how Aristotle's writings are not, as commonly supposed, in opposition to Platonic teachings.  In the third book Taylor examines the transmission of this philosophy since the closure of the Academies and shows how it had been misunderstood and corrupted.  In the last book, Taylor shows how his contemporaries were failing to comprehend the principles outlined by Aristotle, and ignoring metaphysical ideas in their rush towards a mechanistic substitute..

Vol. XXIX  Proclus' Commentary on the First Book of Euclid's Elments
420 pp ISBN 1 898910 28 6                     £27

Proclus' highly mystical commentary on Euclid's Elements, in which the course of the first book is treated as pathway to the vision of "real being": To be able to see what these commentaries reveal it is necessary to energise the spiritual intuition, relying on innate ideas.  It is by mathesis, or as Taylor says, the 'reminiscence of the eternal reasons resident in the soul', that the innate ideas are evoked.  So by mathesis, the soul withdraws from the outer realm of sensible images, and crosses over to intelligible reality. Once the geometrical abstractions collected up from exterior images, by the discipline of mathesis, are congruent with real ideas, the soul is able to survey real being. Or, as Proclus tells us, "geometry is extended through the universality of things, contains in itself the forms of all thingsand according to its supreme part surveys true beings, and teaches by images the properties of divine ornaments, and the powers of intellectual forms".  For example, he says the point represents Bound, the proceeding straight line, Infinite, and the Circle the energy of Intellect. He 'places' these forms firmly with Intelligible Reality.

To the Commentary of Proclus, Taylor adds a wide-ranging Dissertation (of around 100 pages in length) on Ideas, Syllogism, Soul and the True End of Geometry.

Click here for an abstract from Proclus On Euclid    

Vol. XXX  The Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans
420 pp ISBN 1 898910 29 4                     £27

    The works included in this volume display not only the extraordinary grasp of Platonic-Pythagorean teaching which Taylor possessed, but also reveals the pathway which led to this intellectual prize.  Thomas Taylor's first exploration of truth in his youth and early adulthood was through mathematics: it was only when he discovered that the early Greek writers of mathematics could only be properly understood when approached through Aristotle and Plato that he turned his attention to these philosophers, and those who followed them.  It is doubtful whether there has been a better placed translator of Greek philosophy in the modern age to take up the task of unfolding the significance of number within Platonism.  Whether or not there truly was the exhortation at the entrance of Plato's Academy, "Let none enter here, who do not geometrise," the sentiment was most ably met in the person of Thomas Taylor.

  Of the works included in this volume the Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans (first published in 1816) is the most extensive: as a summary of the philosophic and mystical properties of number and mathematical operations there has been nothing published in the modern age which approaches its comprehensive scope or its profundity.  The Theoretic Arithmetic blazes with the bright light of true thought which eclipses the numerous modern books on number which, if esoteric, so often are mere listings of associations of numbered things; or which, if exoteric, are little more than a series of measurements.  The smallest work, on the other hand, is the Medicina Mentis: in little more than a dozen pages it manages to cover the whole sweep of the divine procession which overflows from The One. The three other treatises which complete this volume (Dissertations on Infinites, on Nullities, and on a New System of Arithmetic Notation ) somewhat overlap each other and the material of the Theoretic Arithmetic, but each has important insights to offer the student who is willing to peruse them. 

Click here for an abstract (34Kb) from The Theoretic Arithmetic 

Vols. XXXI & XXXII  Pausanias' Guide to Greece
ISBNs 1 898910 30 8 and 1 898910 31 6

Pausanias' invaluable guide to the history, myths and legends of  central and southern Greece as remembered and celebrated in his time (the second century, C.E.)   Taylor adds many notes concerning the philosophical and theology background to Pausanias' description.  The volume includes a comprehensive index. In two volumes, each being 400pp and priced at £27 (but remember our discount!)

Click here for an abstract from Pausanias' Guide to Grecce. 

Vol. XXXIII  Against the Christians and Other Writings.

270pp ISBN 1 898910 32 4                          £20

This volume includes Taylor's original volume The Arguments of the Emperor Julian Against the Christians (mainly Against the Galilaeans, but also several extracts of other writings aimed towards reviving Paganism and criticising Christian activities); his small volume Arguments of Celsus, Porphyry and Julian Against the Christians; his Rights of Brutes (a satire on Payne's Rights of Man, and Wollstonecraft's Rights of Women); his Answer to the Supplement of Dr Gillies (a defence of his approach to the translation of Aristotle); his short essay On Critics; all the writings in his two works Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, and Collectanea which have not been included earlier in the Series, and all his writings in the Classical Journal which have not been used earlier in the Series. 

Click here for an abstract from Against the Christian s

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