Books

First edition of the first translation of Leviathan, into Dutch, almost certainly the second edition overall following the English edition of 1651, and the text probably read by Spinoza. Leviathan offers the fullest and most famous expression of the indivisibility of sovereignty, the necessity for the state's leader to be absolute in their power, unchecked by constitutional or institutional limitations. Leviathan's thesis is exemplified by the iconic frontispiece "the State, it seemed to Hobbes, might be regarded as a great artificial monster made up of individual men. 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). Much influenced by the chaos of the English Civil War, Hobbes deemed stable monarchies as the most rational and effective system of governance; any restrictions or attempts at power sharing will fracture the state and risk disintegration of social order, a prospect more fearful to Hobbes than any regimen of an absolute leader. That the first translation of Hobbes's masterpiece was into Dutch was significant, given the context of the ongoing religious dispute in the Netherlands, and for its potential influence on Spinoza. The edition's "appearance may be related to the debate over toleration in the Netherlands, where the pro-toleration States party were campaigning against the orthodox Calvinist Counter-Remonstrants. As in the English context, Hobbes's anticlericalism made Leviathan a useful resource in support of a toleration agenda. Perhaps the best example of this is the use made of Leviathan's theological ideas by Spinoza in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), a work whose political theory already owed much to a Dutch republican tradition informed by Hobbes's De Cive. The many links with Spinoza's works would ensure that Hobbes and Leviathan would be closely associated with the Dutch freethinker and condemned in the same terms, both in England and on the Continent" (Parkin, p. 450). The translation was by Abraham van Berkel (1639-1686), an associate of Spinoza and member of his circle. Spinoza at his death did not own any edition of Leviathan, but was evidently familiar with the text, and as he could not read English, he would have read either this edition, or the Latin translation of 1668. The Latin translation is admittedly the edition that was most accessible to continental readers (van Berkel's edition was suppressed by the Dutch government in 1674 and the translator driven into hiding), but given Spinoza's link with van Berkel, it is more likely that he read this edition (Fukuoka, p. 148). The text was translated from the first English edition of 1651; for the primacy of this Dutch edition compared to the two English reprints with fictitious 1651 dates, see Schoneveld (p. 58). Macdonald and Hargreaves 47. Atsuko Fukuoka, The Sovereign and the Prophets, 2018; Jon Parkin, "The reception of Hobbes's Leviathan", in Patricia Springborg (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes's Leviathan, 2007; Cornelis W. Schoneveld, Intertraffic of the Mind, 1983. Octavo (162 x 103 mm). Contemporary vellum, spine lettered by hand at a later date, free endpapers renewed using old paper, blue speckled edges. Engraved title page and portrait of Hobbes, printed folding table. 18th/19th century ownership signatures to front pastedown. Vellum lightly soiled, binding professionally tightened, intermittent staining and general light browning to contents, slight chip to T4 shaving a couple of letters in shoulder note. A very good copy.

Leviathan is a book written by Thomas Hobbes which concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.