LEVIATHAN, or THE MATTER, FORM, and POWER of A COMMONWEALTH ECCLESIASTICAL and CIVIL. by HOBBES, Thomas.: - 1680

London, printed for Andrew Crooke, at the Green Dragon in St Pauls Church-yard, 1651, but circa 1680.. THIRD EDITION, "ORNAMENTS EDITION", 1651, but circa 1680. Good impression of the figure at top of engraved title, as often, after the first edition, impressions are weak. Tall folio in 4s, approximately 330 x 200 mm, 13 x 7¾ inches, pages without watermarks, pages: engraved pictorial title page followed by printed title with 25 ornaments (fleurons) in 5 rows, leaves A2 & A3, which contain The Epistle, Contents and Errata, folding table, 1-250, 249-256, 261-394, mispagination present in all copies, bound in full calf, early covers with new spine at sometime, gilt title and date to spine. Binding rubbed and scuffed, spine faded, small repairs to corners, pale staining and age-browning to folding table, small repair to blank side, no loss, pale staining to title page, 20 pages heavily browned, all readable, 2 small holes in text with 2 letters missing but easily understood, pale age-browning and spotting to many margins. According to Noel Malcolm, Works of Thomas Hobbes, Volume 1, page 264: "the Ornaments (edition) is far from being a luxury product; it uses a distinctively rough and poor-quality paper, which is thin, feathery to the touch, prone to browning"; see also pages 258-271; Carl H. Pforzheimer Library of English Literature, Volume 2, page 494 states: "This copy, from the breadth of its margins, appears to be upon large-paper (our copy is the same size). However, the few other copies of this edition which we have seen are all nearly as large as the present, and in all the paper, whatever its size, is execrable"; Printing and the Mind of Man, page 82, No.138; Sotheby's, The Library of the Earls of Macclesfield, Part 8, page 161, No. 2715 listing first editions; ESTC R13935; "Leviathan ranks as a classic Western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War (16421651), Leviathan, Hobbes's most important work and one of the most influential philosophical texts produced during the seventeenth century, was written partly as a response to the fear Hobbes experienced during the political turmoil of the English Civil Wars". (Wikipedia). MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.