Books

Folio (278 x 183 mm) in fours, pp. [viii], 396; ornament of winged head on title page, with engraved title page and folding printed table at ch. 9. Contemporary dark brown calf, boards ruled in blind, re-spined to style, with red morocco title label gilt, raised bands and compartments elaborately gilt. Engraved emblematic title page. An excellent copy, minor marginal repair to fore edge of one leaf not affecting the text, very small loss to lower margin of another, professional repair to a third affecting the text but without loss. Some minor browning throughout with a little light staining more persistent toward the end, light early marginal notations - mostly corrections - on 16 pages. Rebacked preserving original pastedowns and front free endpaper, some crackling of the end leaves and creasing to the boards. Withal an attractive and honest copy. From the library of Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, 10th earl of Dundonald, 1775-1860, with his bookplate on the front pastedown. Colleague of Admiral Lord Nelson in the Napoleonic wars, called by the French "Le loup de mer" (the Sea Wolf). Provenance: Peter Harrington, Antiquarian Bookseller, London.

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.