Fine Books & Manuscripts

HOBBES, Thomas (1588–1679). Leviathan; or, The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common–Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill. London: printed [by Roger Norton and Richard Cotes] for Andrew Crooke, 1651. Chancery folio (279 x 184 mm). Additional engraved and etched allegorical title originally attributed to Hollar but now thought to be by Abraham Bosse in collaboration with Hobbes, woodcut “head”–ornament vignette on printed title, folding letterpress sheet “Table of Subjects of Knowledge”, errata on A3v. (Some light staining, final leaf slightly trimmed). Contemporary English dark calf, modern morocco lettering–piece gilt (rebacked preserving original spine); morocco folding case. FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. Hobbes regarded the State as an artificial monster made up of individual men that submit for their own survival because any government is better than the anarchy of the natural state. It’s publication “produced a fermentation in English thought not surpassed until the advent of Darwinism. Its importance may be gauged by the long list of assailants it aroused. It was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum 7th May 1703… and still remains a model of vigorous exposition, unsurpassed in the language” (Pforzheimer). ESTC R17253; Macdonald–Hargreaves 42; Hazlitt I, 215; Norman 1082; Pforzheimer 491; PMM 138.