Hobbes, Thomas

Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil. London: for Andrew Crooke, 1651



Small folio (11 x 7 1/8 in.; 280 x 181 mm). Engraved title divided into compartments, woodcut "head" ornament on letterpress title, folding table placed between page 40-41, woodcut head-piece and decorative initials; fore-margin of engraved title and remainder of quire "a" renewed affecting outer frame of title which is supplied in penwork facsimile, letterpress title soiled and spotted, small blank section of folding table renewed, some marginal spotting and dampstaining, mends in blank fore-margins of final three quires, a few small ink smudges on pages 63, 68-69, early pen annotation quoting Sir Thomas Browne on page 1 margin. Contemporary blind-ruled calf; rebacked with original spine laid down, some scuffmarks, some mends in corners and edges.

Allane Vernon (contemporary ownership inscription on title)

Macdonald & Hargreaves 42; Pforzheimer 491; PMM 138; Wing H2246

First edition, first issue. Hobbes's masterpiece of political theory formed on the experience of the English Civil War, in which the State is seen as an artificial monster to which individuals submit for their own survival.

"This book 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 7 May 1703, though all Hobbes's works had previously been condemned in toto, and it still remains a model of vigorous exposition, unsurpassed in the language" (Pforzheimer).