John Locke; Übersetzung: M. Coste; Vignette-Stich: J. Fokke - Essai philosophique concernant l'entendement humain - 1755

Title:

Philosophical Essay concerning Human Understanding

Author / Editor:

John Locke

Place / Publisher / Year:

Amsterdam and Leipzig 1755 at J. Schreuder & Pierre Mortier le Jeune

Format / Size:

Duodecimo / Small octavo (approx. 25x18 cm)

Collation (Extent):

4°: [2] leaves, XXXVII pages, [2] leaves, 603 pages, [9] leaves

Description of the work and its significance:

This significant work is one of the most influential masterpieces in the history of philosophy. John Locke (1632–1704), one of the founding fathers of the Enlightenment and a leading representative of empiricism, laid the foundation for modern epistemology with this text. Locke argues in a fascinating way here that the human mind at birth is like a tabula rasa (an unwritten slate) and that all knowledge is acquired exclusively from experience and sensory perception.

This beautiful and rare fifth French edition of 1755 is historically particularly interesting. It is based on the celebrated translation by Pierre Coste, which significantly contributed to disseminating Locke's revolutionary ideas on the European mainland—and especially among the intellectual circles of the French Enlightenment.

Binding and physical condition:

• Condition: Contemporary paper-covered boards with marbled endpapers, clearly aged.
• Defects: The cover is heavily rubbed and chafed.

• Edges: The corners and edges are heavily bumped; in several places there is strong wear with visible loss of the endpaper, exposing the underlying cardboard.

• Spine: The spine is also rubbed and at the foot has an old, pasted-on library label (with the number “201”). A back title is not present or entirely rubbed.

Interior & text block:

• Binding: The text block is firm, stable, and well preserved in the binding.

• Pages: The paper is well preserved for its age. The pages are largely clean and fresh, only occasionally slightly browned or with minimal, time-typical foxing (specks).