[Next Project] Moral Letters to Lucilius by Seneca (trans. by Richard Mott Gummere)

[devino...@gmail.com]

Hello all,

For my next project, I'd like to do Moral Letters to Lucilius by Seneca. I'll be using the Richard Mott Gummere translation, which is not only a translation of the entire work, but is also the 2nd-best translation into English, only surpassed by the 2017 translation done by the University of Chicago.

Transcription: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius

Page scans (vol 1): https://archive.org/details/adluciliumepistu01seneuoft/page/n7/mode/2up

Page scans (vol 2): https://archive.org/details/adluciliumepistu02sene_0/page/n7/mode/2up

Page scans (vol 3): https://archive.org/details/adluciliumepistu03sene/page/n5/mode/2up

Repo: https://github.com/Survey0r/seneca_moral-letters-to-lucilius_richard-m-gummere

Some preliminaries:

• There are 124 letters total. I saw that in Twenty Years After, the chapters went all the way to 90 with Roman numerals, but in its sequel, The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Arabic numerals were used for chapter numbers because of how high the numbers went (nearly 270). Is there a cutoff point when we switch from Roman numerals to Arabic ones for chapter headers? (I'm good with using either one.)
• While the translation was published in three volumes, it does not appear that the three-volume structure was native to the original work, and so I'll be dropping that structure from the ebook. (As in, there won't be any volume dividers in the ebook.)
• Here is my cover proposal, from KMSKA: https://kmska.be/en/masterpiece/roman-orator. I adjusted the lines a bit--the original had "Moral" on the first line, and the rest of the title on the line below, but I adjusted it so that "Moral Letters" is on the first line instead. (I haven't done this in the repo, of course--I'll make the adjustment to the cover, titlepage, etc. when I get the go-ahead to work on the ebook.)
• 

Thanks,

Devin

[Vince]

On Jan 19, 2026, at 3:23 PM, devino...@gmail.com <devino...@gmail.com> wrote:

• There are 124 letters total. I saw that in Twenty Years After, the chapters went all the way to 90 with Roman numerals, but in its sequel, The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Arabic numerals were used for chapter numbers because of how high the numbers went (nearly 270). Is there a cutoff point when we switch from Roman numerals to Arabic ones for chapter headers? (I'm good with using either one.)
• While the translation was published in three volumes, it does not appear that the three-volume structure was native to the original work, and so I'll be dropping that structure from the ebook. (As in, there won't be any volume dividers in the ebook.)
• Here is my cover proposal, from KMSKA: https://kmska.be/en/masterpiece/roman-orator. I adjusted the lines a bit--the original had "Moral" on the first line, and the rest of the title on the line below, but I adjusted it so that "Moral Letters" is on the first line instead. (I haven't done this in the repo, of course--I'll make the adjustment to the cover, titlepage, etc. when I get the go-ahead to work on the ebook.)

It was originally “north of one hundred”, but as you saw with Twenty Years After, it really takes getting quite a bit over 100 before we switch (I think we only have two or three in the entire corpus that are roman). Up to Alex which is done here, of course.

Alex actually just re-wrote the whole cover/titlepage generation code because of things like this; the new version puts “Moral Letters” on the first line as well. It will be in the next release of the tools, whenever that might be.

[Vince]

The Luzumiyat has 121 and is roman, so I suspect this one will be as well.

[Alex Cabal]

OK, sounds good. You can stick with roman numbering. Weijia will manage
with Emma reviewing. Weijia can you put the art into the DB when you
have a moment?

On 1/19/26 3:23 PM, devino...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hello all,
>

> For my next project, I'd like to do /Moral Letters to Lucilius /by

> Seneca. I'll be using the Richard Mott Gummere translation, which is not
> only a translation of the entire work, but is also the 2nd-best
> translation into English, only surpassed by the 2017 translation done by
> the University of Chicago.
>
> Transcription: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius
> <https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius>
>
> Page scans (vol 1): https://archive.org/details/

> adluciliumepistu01seneuoft/page/n7/mode/2up <https://archive.org/
> details/adluciliumepistu01seneuoft/page/n7/mode/2up>

> Page scans (vol 2): https://archive.org/details/

> adluciliumepistu02sene_0/page/n7/mode/2up <https://archive.org/details/
> adluciliumepistu02sene_0/page/n7/mode/2up>

> Page scans (vol 3): https://archive.org/details/adluciliumepistu03sene/

> page/n5/mode/2up <https://archive.org/details/adluciliumepistu03sene/
> page/n5/mode/2up>
>
> Repo: https://github.com/Survey0r/seneca_moral-letters-to-
> lucilius_richard-m-gummere <https://github.com/Survey0r/seneca_moral-
> letters-to-lucilius_richard-m-gummere>
>
> Some preliminaries:
>
> * There are 124 letters total. I saw that in /Twenty Years After/, the

> chapters went all the way to 90 with Roman numerals, but in its

> sequel, /The Vicomte de Bragelonne/, Arabic numerals were used for

> chapter numbers because of how high the numbers went (nearly 270).
> Is there a cutoff point when we switch from Roman numerals to Arabic
> ones for chapter headers? (I'm good with using either one.)

> * While the translation was published in three volumes, it does not

> appear that the three-volume structure was native to the original
> work, and so I'll be dropping that structure from the ebook. (As in,
> there won't be any volume dividers in the ebook.)

> * Here is my cover proposal, from KMSKA: https://kmska.be/en/
> masterpiece/roman-orator <https://kmska.be/en/masterpiece/roman-
> orator>. I adjusted the lines a bit--the original had "Moral" on the

> first line, and the rest of the title on the line below, but I
> adjusted it so that "Moral Letters" is on the first line instead. (I
> haven't done this in the repo, of course--I'll make the adjustment
> to the cover, titlepage, etc. when I get the go-ahead to work on the
> ebook.)

> * cover2.png
>
> Thanks,
>
> Devin
>
>
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[devino...@gmail.com]

I realised I made a mistake when I spelled out his name in the project thread title. I've actually called the project seneca_moral-letters-to-lucilius_richard-m-gummere, since the title pages in the page scans abbreviate his middle name, and I noticed the current placeholder URL fully spells out his middle name. Can that be changed so that it aligns with the current repo title?

Thanks,

Devin

[Alex Cabal]

OK, I've updated it!

> > Page scans (vol 1): https://archive.org/details/ <https://
> archive.org/details/>
> > adluciliumepistu01seneuoft/page/n7/mode/2up <https://archive.org/
> <https://archive.org/>
> > details/adluciliumepistu01seneuoft/page/n7/mode/2up>
> > Page scans (vol 2): https://archive.org/details/ <https://
> archive.org/details/>
> > adluciliumepistu02sene_0/page/n7/mode/2up <https://archive.org/
> details/ <https://archive.org/details/>

> > adluciliumepistu02sene_0/page/n7/mode/2up>
> > Page scans (vol 3): https://archive.org/details/

> adluciliumepistu03sene/ <https://archive.org/details/
> adluciliumepistu03sene/>
> > page/n5/mode/2up <https://archive.org/details/
> adluciliumepistu03sene/ <https://archive.org/details/
> adluciliumepistu03sene/>
> > page/n5/mode/2up>
> >
> > Repo: https://github.com/Survey0r/seneca_moral-letters-to-
> <https://github.com/Survey0r/seneca_moral-letters-to->
> > lucilius_richard-m-gummere <https://github.com/Survey0r/
> seneca_moral- <https://github.com/Survey0r/seneca_moral->

> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/>
> > standardebooks/5786034a-da8f-432f-8172-
> e0748de662een%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>
> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/5786034a-
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/5786034a->
> > da8f-432f-8172-e0748de662een%40googlegroups.com
> <http://40googlegroups.com>?
> > utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

>
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> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Weijia Cheng]

Ok, I have submitted the artwork.