[Spinoza, Baruch]

4to (206 x 158 mm). Woodcut device on title, woodcut text illustrations; early 18th century marginalia (the majority to preface in green ink, presumably in the hand of G.F. Baermann a mathematics professor from Wittenberg who edited and translated several mathematical works), some occasional marginal dampstaining or spots, strip of fly-leaf cut away.Contemporary vellum, title in manuscript to spine; soiled and rubbed, with a few small holes to spine.

G.F. Baermann (7-line ownership inscription dated 1734)

Van der Linde 22; PMM 153 note

First edition of Spinoza's posthumous works,  including his influential Ethica, more geometrico demonstrata, the work which established Spinoza's reputation as a rationalist and "atheist." It is considered the first systematic exposition of pantheism in which God is identified with the entire universe. With the "geometric method" Spinoza sought to apply mathematical reasoning to metaphysics. This led to the identification of God with the universe, which came to be viewed as a rational philosophy proclaiming the divinity of nature. The concept was embraced by various German Enlightenment interpreters (Lessing, Jacobi, Herder and Goethe) who, however, rejected Spinoza's method. Included herein are his political works and his Hebrew Grammar. The work was banned in Holland in 1678 and placed on the Index in 1679.