[London]: Richard Grafton, [September] 1542., 1542. small 8vo. ff. [20], 345, [12]. first 2 leaves (title & Udall’s address to the reader) in good quality facsimile. woodcut printer’s device on title – a different one at end. woodcut initials. black letter, with some italic & Greek. A very good copy in contemporary blind & gilt-stamped paneled calf, rebacked with spine mounted (corners worn, occasional light soiling or marginal dampstains). bookplate of Sir Thomas Brooke. First Edition of the English Translation by dismissed Eton schoolmaster, playwright and scholar, Nicholas Udall [1505-1556], author of the earliest extant English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister (1552). The translation is of books three and four (of eight), and includes famous sayings attributed to Socrates, Aristippus, Diogenes, Philippus, Alexander the Great, Antigonus, Augustus Caesar, Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, Phocion, Cicero, and Demosthenes. Many phrases that became popular English proverbs find their source here: “to call a spade a spade”, “he who fights and runs away may live to fight another day”, “to have well begun is a thing half done”, &c. STC 10443. cfGrolier, Langland to Wither, 252 (2nd Edn., 1564).. 1st Edition. Hardcover.