ARISTOPHANES/ WIELAND, Christoph Martin
Die Ritter, oder die Demagogen. Die Vögel. Aus dem Griechischen des Aristofanes übersetzt und erläutert von C. M. Wieland.
Wien, In Commission bey Anton Doll, s.d. (1813)
12mo, contemporary cardboard binding, marbled boards, red title piece, frontispice, 300 p.; good copy, title piece partially missing, edges and corners rubbed
First edition of the german translation by Wieland of two of Aristophanes’ plays: The Knights, that satirizes the political and social life of classical Athens and The Birds, a comedy acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy. Christoph Martin Wieland (1733–1813) was a German poet and writer and is best-remembered for having written the first Bildungsroman “Geschichte des Agathon”, as well as the epic Oberon, which formed the basis for Carl Maria von Weber’s opera of the same name. His thought was representative of the cosmopolitanism of the German Enlightenment, exemplified in his remark: “Only a true cosmopolitan can be a good citizen.” Late in life, he considered himself a classicist and devoted most of his time to translating Greek and Roman authors.
