This fine edition of Cicero's treatises on the topics of friendship, old age and life contains the respected translation of E. S. Shuckburgh. Written in the second century A.D., these writings encapsulate the wisdom and ability possessed by their author. Already well into maturity, it is here that the accumulated experience of a man who had - in an illustrious career of public service in the Roman Empire - seen and known all manner of events and people in his bustling society. The attributes important to friendship are identified by Cicero as he discusses the qualities a good friend should have. There are several intractable virtues of friendship, which must be preserved lest the union be damaged. The second treatise elaborates upon what it is to be old. Writing so as to echo the much esteemed Cato the Elder, the beauty and profundity of the words in this essay are significant. The clear and plain yet succinct and wistfully eloquent words elaborate on aging and the concerns that arrive with it.

Few artworks have been the subject of more extensive modern interpretation than Melencolia I by renowned artist, mathematician, and scientist Albrecht Durer (1514). And yet, did each of these art experts and historians miss a secret manifesto that Durer included within the engraving? This is the first work to decrypt secrets within Melencolia I based not on guesswork, but Durer's own writings, other subliminal artists that inspired him (i.e., Leonardo da Vinci), the Jewish and Christian Bibles, and books that inspired Durer (De Occulta Philosophia and the Hieorglyphica). To read the covert message of Melencolia I is to understand that Durer was a humanist in his interests in mathematics, science, poetry, and antiquity. This book recognizes his unparalleled power with the burin, his mathematical skill in perspective, his dedication to precise language, and his acute observation of nature. Melencolia I may also be one of the most controversial (and at the time most criminal) pieces of art as it hid Durer's disdain for the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the Kaiser, and the Holy Roman Empire from the general public for centuries. This book closely ties the origins of philosophy (science) and the work of a Renaissance master together, and will be of interest for anyone who loves scientific history, art interpretation, and secret manifestos.