Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Thomas Hobbes. Edited by Eric Nelson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2008.
Hobbes, T., & Molesworth, W. (1844). The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury (Vol. 10). J. Bohn.
Murray, A. T., & Dimock, G. E. (1995). Homer: Odyssey (Vols. 1-2, Loeb Classical Library No. 104 & 105). Harvard University Press.
Nelson, E. (Ed.). (2008). Thomas Hobbes: Translations of Homer: Iliad and Odyssey (The Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes, Vols. 24–25). Oxford University Press.
On the featured image
Van Thulden, Theodor. Les Travaux d’Ulysse, desseignez par le Sieur de Sainct Martin, de la façon qu’ils se voyent dans la maison Royalle de Fontainebleau. Paris: Melchior Tavernier, 1633.
Provenance and Repository Information
The original 1633 bound volumes and standalone copperplate engravings from this suite are held in major graphic arts cabinets internationally:
The British Museum (London): Holds an extensive, well-documented run of the individual plates (Museum numbers P,W-3.72 through P,W-3.129), cataloged under the series title The Works of Ulysses.
The Art Institute of Chicago: Preserves early preparatory drawings and variant text sheets executed in pen, brown ink, and gray wash by Van Thulden himself, which served as the precise drafts for the eventual Parisian print run.
The Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam): Houses a complete bound edition containing the full cycle of 58 plates tracking the narrative from the destruction of Troy to the reclamation of Ithaca.
Art History and Scholarly Context
Les Travaux d’Ulysse holds exceptional value for art historians because it serves as the primary visual blueprint for reconstructing the lost masterwork of French Mannerism: the Galerie d’Ulysse at the Royal Palace of Fontainebleau. Painted between 1555 and 1570 by the Italian masters Francesco Primaticcio and Niccolò dell’Abate, the massive 58-scene fresco cycle was completely demolished in 1738 during structural renovations under Louis XV.
Scholars focus on Van Thulden’s specific stylistic choices; while he intended to record Primaticcio’s elegant, elongated Renaissance figures faithfully, his heavy, muscular linework inevitably betrays the contemporary Flemish Baroque sensibilities of his training under Peter Paul Rubens (Miller, 2007).
References
Miller, Elizabeth Lehman. “The Image of a Queen: The Representation of Catherine de’ Medici as Penelope in the Galerie d’Ulysse.” Master’s thesis, University of Georgia, 2007. Van Thulden, Theodor. Les Travaux d’Ulysse. Paris: Chez François Langlois, dit Chartres, 1640 [reissue of the 1633 Tavernier plates].
