Thomas Hobbes
The First Collected Edition
Hobbes, Thomas. THE MORAL AND POLITICAL WORKS OF THOMAS HOBBES OF MALMESBURY. Never before collected together. To Which is prefixed, The Author’s LIFE, Extracted From That said to be written by Himself, as also from The Supplement to the said Life by Dr. Blackbourne; and farther illustrated by the Editor, with Historical and Critical Remarks on his Writings and Opinions. (London: , 1750) First Edition of the Collected Works. Engraved portrait frontispiece of Hobbes, engraved title to Leviathan as in the first edition, engraved tailpieces. Large folio, full contemporary polished calf, the spine expertly restored incorporating the original materials, with raised bands, gilt ruled borders, red lettering label gilt. [8], xxviii, 700. A very nice crisp copy with only occasional age toning to the paper.
RARE FIRST EDITION OF A HIGHLY IMPORTANT WORK. The first collected edition of Hobbes’ oeuvre is especially elusive and rarely encountered. LEVIATHAN, included herein, and with its original engraved titlepage is one of the most influential books in the English language, and certainly Hobbes's most important work, containing a complete system of his philosophy, including his political, moral, and theological views. Hobbes wrote this treatise under the shadow of the English Civil War and the ongoing conflict between royalists and republicans; his conclusion, that unless his life is threatened an individual should submit to the State, because any government is preferable to anarchy, pleased neither party. But Hobbes expected no such controversy, and even presented a copy to Charles II. The work "produced a fermentation in English thought not surpassed until the advent of Darwinism" (quoted in the catalgoue for The Garden Sale, Sotheby's 1989).
Of his translation of Thucydides’ Pelopponesian War, Hobbes’ was the second English translation of Thucydides. It remains even today one of the standard texts for understanding the great Greek historian. Although Hobbes's Greek was imperfect and inaccuracies crept into his text, the work still maintains very considerable merits. J.S. Phillimore, in a pamphlet entitled "Some Remarks on Translations and Translators," has said, "Read him in the famous speeches...and Jowett seems a nerveless paraphrase." |
