Mirages of the Selfe : Patterns of Personhood in Ancient and Early Modern Europe, Hardcover by Reiss, Timothy J., ISBN 080474565X, ISBN-13 9780804745659, Brand New, Free shipping in the US

Reiss (comparative literature, New York U.) set out to complete a projected two-volume work on the intellectual history of early modern Europe, but realized that to make sense of self-identity during that period required some comparison with concepts from early and late antiquity. He starts there, considering the thought of such figures as Asclepias, Cicero, Seneca, Galen, and Augustine. Then, after a brief excursus on the intervening millennium, he takes up the story from Petrarch and carries it through Descartes. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR ()