Locke, John

Folio (12 1/4 x 7 1/4 in.; 311 x 184 mm). Title within double-ruled border, errata on a2v; A1–2 stained at top, otherwise a crisp, bright copy, rust hole touching ruled border of headline (X1), small hole touching 4 words (2G2r/v). Contemporary calf; worn, minor loss to lower right corner of upper board.

Michael Ernest Sadler, University College, Oxford (bookplate) — Library ticket monogrammed "E"

Wing L2738; ESTC R22993; Attig 228; Grolier, English 36; Grolier, One Hundred 72; Pforzheimer 599; PMM 164

First edition, Holt (traditionally considered the first) issue. Locke worked for nearly two decades on his investigation of "the certainty and the adequacy of human knowledge," concluding that "though knowledge must necessarily fall short of complete comprehension, it can at least be 'sufficient'; enough to convince us that we are not at the mercy of pure chance, and can to some extent control our own destiny" (PMM). 

The significance of his Essay was immediately recognized: it quickly ran to several editions and was popularized on the Continent by French translations. "Few books in the literature of philosophy have so widely represented the spirit of the age and country in which they appeared, or have so influenced opinion afterwards" (Fraser). 

This issue has the Elizabeth Holt imprint, and the "ss" of "Essay" correctly printed. An issue with a cancel title under the imprint of Thomas Basset, with the "ss" of "Essay" reversed, and with the typographical ornament unaligned is also known. Both issues have been championed as having priority, but recent scholarship indicates that priority of issue cannot be established: in his introduction to the Clarendon Press edition of the Essay, Peter Nidditch reverses his former opinion that the Holt imprint is the sign of a first issue, and John Attig's bibliography records it as a variant.