James Harrington | The common-wealth of Oceana, London,1656, first edition, contemporary calf

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

James Harrington 

The common-wealth of Oceana. London: J. Streater for Livewell Chapman, 1656

FIRST EDITION, folio (268 x 168mm.), title printed in red and black, a few small manuscript corrections in an early hand, contemporary calf, spotting and browning throughout, slight worming to upper margin of pp. 55-60 (not affecting text), rebacked and recornered

Written during the Protectorate, the publication of Harrington's treatise on an English utopia was hampered by political concerns; when it eventually appeared it was dedicated to Oliver Cromwell in order to prevent further problems. Harrington was a keen admirer of Machiavelli, whom he quotes regularly. The treatise was both respected and criticised by his contemporaries and continued to be influential in politics into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

An eighteenth century reader of this copy has written a note on the author, quoted from Samuel Pepys, on the title-page: "By James Harrington a political writer in 1650-70. 1661 he was sent to the Tower on suspicion of treasonable designs. His intellects seem to have failed afterwards. He died in 1677. | Pepys's Diary".

LITERATURE:

Goldsmiths 1385; Pforzheimer 449; Wing H809