27 Mar 2007
10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street
The Library of the late Paul Betts, and other properties including Manuscripts and Photography
Back to auction 15230
The Library of the late Paul Betts, and other properties including Manuscripts and Photography
Back to auction 15230
HOBBES (THOMAS)
Leviathan, or, the Matter, Forme, & Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and Civill, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, winged head ornament on title, additional engraved title, folding letterpress table, one gathering working loose, a few rust and wormholes occasionally causing loss of a few letters, early ink inscription on front free endpaper "Cost 7sh. & 6 pence at Tom's Coffee house Lond. 1 Jully 1698. This is the first Edit. & therefore the more valuable", and listing four titles "written in answer to this, or to any thing of this Author", contemporary sheep, rebacked preserving part of original spine [Wing H2246; Macdonald & Hargreaves 42; Pforzheimer 491; PMM 138], folio (279 x 180mm.), Andrew Crooke, 1651
Sold for
£10,200
inc. premium
Footnotes
- First edition of one of the most important seventeenth century works of political philosophy, in which Hobbes describes the state "as a great artificial monster made up of individual men, with an existence which could be traced from its generation through human reason under pressure of human needs to its destruction through civil strife proceeding from human passions. The individual (except to save his own life) should always submit to the State, because any government is better than the anarchy of the natural state" (PMM). See illustration overleaf.
Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts
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