Leviathan, or, The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Eccleasiasticall and Civill
London: Printed for Andrew Crooke, at the Green Dragon in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1651
Folio (10 7/8 x 7 inches) [iv leaves], 1-396. Engraved title-page has been laid down on heavier paper. It is trimmed slightly along the fore-edge. Contemporary signature of Henry Washington on the upper right corner of the title page. Two small leaves with genealogical information related to Washington tipped on to front free endpaper. 20th century book-plate of C. A. Bucklin on the front paste-down.
Contemporary leather binding, tooled in blind with rules and ornaments on the upper and lower covers, has been handsomely rebacked. The pages are clean and supple.
FIRST EDITION with the “head” ornament (winged head with scrolls, flowers, and tassels) on the engraved title-page. All the errata ( which were corrected in the reprint ) are present in this copy.
Leviathan was written in response to the English civil war, which pitted royalists against republicans in a bloody conflict that led to the execution of King Charles I and the establishment of a short-lived republic. Hobbes’ conclusion that any government is better than anarchy, and so an individual should submit to the State, did not satisfy parties on either side. The book would not be surpassed for provocativeness in English thought until Darwin. The University of Oxford ordered it to the burnt as a “pernicious” book and the Catholic Church included it in their Index in 1703.
Item #144151Price: $26,500.00