Versuch vom Menschlichen Verstande. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt und m

LOCKE (John).

Versuch vom Menschlichen Verstande. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen von Heinrich Engelhard Poleyen.

Rare first German translation of Locke's Essay

First edition in German, first state. 4to. [28], 768, [23, ‘Register’], [1, ’Druckfehler] pp., engraved frontispiece portrait of Locke after George Kneller. Engraved vignette to title page, woodcut head- and tail-pieces. Contemporary half calf with sprinkled paper covered boards, spine with four raised bands, second panel lettered in gilt on brown morocco label, the rest with gilt decorations, red edges (uniform light browning throughout with scattered spots, small patch dampstain to lower-margins of terminal 50 leaves, generally not affecting text; rubbed and worn, gilt lettering to spine almost entirely dulled, boards heavily scuffed). Altenburg, Richterischen Buchhandlung, 1757.

£1,000.00

LOCKE (John).

Versuch vom Menschlichen Verstande. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen von Heinrich Engelhard Poleyen.

The first German translation of Locke’s Essay concerning Humane Understanding, pre-dating the Tennemann edition by 40 years, and much rarer.

Locke had been very keen to have the Essay available to a wider audience than would be reached by the English editions. Poleyen says his German translation is based on the text in the 1727 Works, but his arrangement of Book I follows Coste’s French translation of 1700. The 170 explanatory notes mainly refer to contemporary German authors. Through this translation, the likes of Wolff, Mendelssohn, and the Neologians around Reimarus and Lessing were just as much influenced by Locke as by Kant.

Yolton lists four states of the present edition identifiable by the varying errata on the verso of the terminal leaf; the present example is Yolton’s first state, with a heading 6 lines.

Yolton, John Locke: A Descriptive Bibliography, 108D.

Stock No.

262134

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Versuch vom Menschlichen Verstande. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen von Heinrich Engelhard Poleyen.

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