“A POWERFUL INFLUENCE ON THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION”: FIRST EDITION OF HOBBES’ LANDMARK LEVIATHAN, 1651

HOBBES, Thomas. Leviathan, or, The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill. London: Andrew Crooke, 1651. Folio, contemporary full brown speckled calf sympathetically rebacked, red morocco spine label, raised bands. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition, first issue, of one of the most controversial and important tracts ever written in political philosophy and a major influence on the framers of the Constitution.

“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). Leviathan was also among the “Pernicious Books and Damnable Doctrines” proscribed by the University of Oxford and ordered to be burnt. “Pepys, in his Diary, remarks on the scarcity of this work ‘because the Bishops will not let it be printed again.’ Few books have caused more or fiercer controversy than this one… The system he constructed is the most profound materialistic system of modern times” (Rosenbach 36: 345). Hobbes concluded that an individual should, unless his life is threatened, submit to the State, because any government is better than anarchy. Later philosophical emphasis on the rights of the individual led to a decline in Hobbes’ influence, but the growth of utilitarianism led to his reassessment as “the most original political philosopher of his time” (PMM 138). “Hobbes had a fundamentally pessimistic view of human nature… [which] had a powerful influence on the framers of the [American] Constitution… During the early years of the Revolutionary period, American leaders found Locke’s revolutionary compact ideas more useful than Hobbes’ view of the unlimited authority of the state. But as the political and social experience of the 1780s seemed to bear out Hobbes’s pessimistic view that men are essentially self-interested, the Hobbesian outlook became more relevant. When John Adams wrote that ‘he who would found a state, and make proper laws for the government of it, must presume that all men are bad by nature,’ he was expressing an idea that was derived at once from Hobbes” (Lutz & Warden, A Covenanted People, 38). First issue, with “head” ornament (rather than “bear”) on letterpress title page, additional engraved title, and folding table. Wing 2246. Pforzheimer 491. Macdonald & Hargreaves 42. Owner signature to letterpress title page. A few instances of ink marginalia and underlining in an old hand.

Text generally fresh, a few leaves embrowned, marginal chip to leaf Zz expertly repaired. Contemporary boards with expert restoration. A very good copy of this scarce and important edition.