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Octavo (204 × 124 mm). Contemporary Irish mottled calf, new red morocco label to style. Bound without terminal blank. Neat contemporary shelfmark to front free endpaper and inscription facing title page. Joints and extremities neatly restored, slight insect abrasion to calf, minor indentation along fore edge of book block, contents generally a little toned and soiled. A very good copy. ¶ Keynes, Berkeley 5; Norman 196; Printing and the Mind of Man 176. Ivor Grattan-Guinness, Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics 1640–1940 , 2005. £45,000 [152630] 14 BIBLE; English; Authorized version. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments . . . Oxford: printed by the University- printers, 1695 ENGLISH BLACK MOROCCO panelled in gilt A very attractive late-17th century edition of the Bible, in a handsome English black morocco binding. Large duodecimo (150 × 81 mm). Contemporary black morocco, spine richly gilt in compartments, covers concentrically panelled in gilt with cornerpieces, marbled pastedowns, free endpapers renewed with old marbled paper, gilt edges. 18th-century bookplate of J. Sandford to front pastdown. Neat restoration around extremities, title page discreetly reinserted and repaired in gutter, binding and contents very fresh and clean. An excellent copy. ¶ ESTC R25254; Darlow & Moule 840; Wing B2366. £2,500 [153207]
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13 BERKELEY, George. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowlege [ sic ] . . . Dublin: by Aaron Rhames, for Jeremy Pepyat, 1710 A CORNERSTONE OF 18TH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY First edition of Berkeley’s key work, “the classic exposition of [Berkeley’s] philosophy of immaterialism as an antidote to infidelity” ( ODNB ), in which he famously puts forward the idea that “no object can exist without a mind to conceive it”. Part two of the work was lost while still in manuscript form. Although Berkeley’s works did not initially prompt much reaction, they came to have a profound effect on the intellectual life of the later 18th century, and were not uncontroversial. The Treatise “set out his idealistic philosophy in detail, arguing that the concept of ‘material substance’ is at once absurd
and explanatorily useless. He pointed out that even philosophers who posit the existence of material bodies cannot explain how matter can produce ideas in the mind, or how purely mental phenomena like ideas could resemble or correspond to non- mental, material substances. Perhaps his most shocking claim in favour of his metaphysics was his oft-repeated contention that his principles were in strict accord with common sense and inimical to skepticism” (Grattan-Guinness, p. 122). This copy has been extensively annotated in both ink and pencil in an 18th-century hand, chiefly in English and occasionally in Latin. The majority of pages are annotated, ranging from question marks and crosses to paragraph summaries and challenges to Berkeley’s points. The annotator has a strong grasp of Berkeley’s argument and the wider epistemological background in which he was writing, and makes several references to John Locke.
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SPRING 2022
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