Seneca served as tutor and later advisor to the emperor Nero, but attempted to resign his post in AD 62 following the death of the emperor's chief minister Sextus Africanus Burrus, as it was becoming apparent that Nero was beginning to favour only those who would allow him to do anything he liked. The offer of resignation was refused, but Seneca gradually distanced himself from the emperor, finally withdrawing from public life after the great fire of Rome in AD 64, and began to focus on his writing. Seneca's philosophical works were popular during the Renaissance, as they covered topics of morality such as anger; benevolence; providence and happiness.
This edition of Seneca's writings was edited by Erasmus and printed by the humanist scholar Johann Froben at Basel in 1517.