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First edition, presentation copy, inscribed in a contemporary hand on the front free endpaper, "Donum Auctoris" [Gift of the Author]. Presentation copies of Religion are extremely scarce: this is only the second such copy that we have traced in commerce. Religion is Kant's last major work and most substantial religious treatise, making the provocative argument that religion can be entirely grounded within human rationality, not revelation. Kant published the first part in an article in the Berlinische Monatsschrift. His attempt to publish the second part was blocked by the Prussian king's censor. Kant then arranged to have all four pieces published as a book, routed through the philosophy department at the University of Jena to avoid the need for theological censorship. Kant was reprimanded for this action of insubordination. He nonetheless published a second edition in 1794, leading to a royal order that required Kant never to publish or even speak publicly about religion. In Religion, Kant claims "that all that is essential in religion can be reduced to morality, but he does not reject the main tenets of traditional religion. They are valuable, if only we realize that they are not knowledge, but 'nothing more than two articles of belief', namely the belief in God and the belief in immortality" (Kuehn, p. 250). Kant is thought to have commissioned between four and five presentation copies of the Kritik der Reinen Vernunft (1781) and Kritik der Urtheilskraft (1790), also printed on thick paper with wide margins. It is reasonable to suppose that a similar number were printed for Religion. Kant's correspondence records that he sent copies of Religion to Abraham Gotthelf Kästner (1719-1800), a mathematician, Carl Friedrich Stäudlin (1761-1826), a theologian, Johann Gottfried Carl Christian Kiesewetter (1766-1819), a philosopher, and Maria von Herbert (1769-1803), an aristocratic patron. A recently discovered copy, unrecorded in his correspondence, is inscribed by Johann Gottfried Hasse (1759-1806), a theologian. The lower outer corner of the front free endpaper is inscribed "F. r.", in a different hand to that of the "Donum Auctoris", which is probably in a secretarial hand. We are unable to identify the recipient. READ MORE Octavo (207 x 125 mm). Contemporary marbled paper over boards, green paper label to spine lettered in gilt, edges sprinkled red. Errata corrected in ink in a very careful contemporary hand. Light bumping and wear, cosmetic splits to inner hinges, minor browning to endpapers, a couple of ink splashes to edges, slight foxing to margins, small pinholes to a few lower outer margins: an excellent copy. Adickes 79; Warda 141. Manfred Kuehn, Kant: A Biography, 2001.

A significant work by Immanuel Kant, published in 1793, discussing the limits of religion within the bounds of reason alone.