Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$713.28 + shipping
Description: 29 hh., 936 pp., 11 hh., 1 retrato del autor. 4º. Pasta española de época. Buen estado general, salvo desperfectos en lomera. Primera edición francesa de este importante tratado filosófico.
Seller: Salvador Cortés, Librero Anticuario, San Lorenzo del Escorial, Spain
Price: US$830.15 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Traduit de l'anglois de Mr. Locke par Pierre Coste, sur la 4e me édition, revue, éditée & corrigée par l'auteur. Reliure cuir, 5 nerfs, avec traces d'usures.
Seller: ShepherdsBook, Yvonand, Switzerland
Price: US$836.18 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Fort in-4, plein veau havane époque, dos à nerfs encadrés de fers dorés, pièce de titre maroquin rouge, roulette dorée sur les coupes, portrait gravé de Locke en frontipice, [52] -936- [20] pp. Ex-libris de Jean François Gillet, écuyer. Une soigneuse restauration au titre, sans atteinte au texte. Légères usures. Bon exemplaire. Édition originale de la traduction par Pierre Coste de ce traité de John Locke (ici francisé en "Jean Locke"), son oeuvre maîtresse et l'un des textes majeurs de l'empirisme. Pierre Coste joua un rôle fondamental dans la découverte de lempirisme anglais par les philosophes des Lumières.
Seller: Librairie de l'Avenue - Henri Veyrier, Saint-Ouen, FR, France
Price: US$954.02 + shipping
Description: 4to, engraved portrait frontispiece and pp. [lvi], 936, [21] index, [1] privilege; many modern notes in pencil and biro, nowhere disfiguring the text but all the same not very attractive; bound in contemporary calf, spine gilt, gilt lettering piece (foot of spine rubbed, but quite sound). First edition of Coste's translation of Locke's Essay concerning human understanding. This translation was conducted under Locke's own supervision from the MS of the fourth edition, which did not appear until after mid-April 1700 (Yolton p. 80). Coste had begun to translate Locke's essay in 1695, using the third edition; in 1697 he moved to Oates, where Locke was living, and continued work under the author's supervision. Locke was keen to see his work available to a wider audience than the English editions might reach, and clearly he worked closely with Coste. Jean Le Clerc testified that Coste 'le traduisit avec beaucoup de soin, de fidelité & netteté, sous ses [i.e. Locke's] yeux, & cette version est très-estimée'. Nidditch points out that Coste did not include all the changes from earlier editions which appear in the fourth, but two new chapters (2.33 on the association of ideas; and 4.19 on enthusiasm) which were due to appear are included. The French translation also includes a short prefatory address 'Monsieur Locke au libraire', in which Locke writes to Henri Schelte recommending the translation: Yolton points out that this must be part of a letter from Locke to Schelte (not printed in de Beer's edition) which first appears here. Thus Coste's translation is a significant first edition in the Locke canon, publishing several important changes for the first time and including an original contribution by Locke in the form of his letter to the publisher. Yolton 91.
Seller: Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB, Henley-on-Thames, OXON, United Kingdom
Price: US$1042.48 + shipping
Description: In-4 (19 X 25 cm) basane brune, dos à nerfs, double filet dorés, pièce de titre verte, tranches rouges. 27 feuillets + 936 + 11 feuillets. (Reliure de l'époque). Des notions innées. Des idées. Des mots. De la connaissance. Très bon exemplaire de l'?uvre maitresse de l'auteur, fondateur du matérialisme empirique, s?opposant au « cogito ergo sum » de Descartes, qui influencera durablement le siècle des Lumières, dont Condillac, Helvétius Diderot.
Seller: Librairie Jeanne Laffitte, Marseille, France
Price: US$1208.42 + shipping
Description: 4to, engraved portrait frontispiece (slightly torn at foredge) and pp. [lvi], 936, [21] index, [1] privilege; a very good unsophisticated copy in contemporary calf, spine gilt, rubbed but very sound. Early armorial bookplate, probably French or Dutch. First edition of Coste's translation of Locke's Essay concerning human understanding. This translation was conducted under Locke's own supervision from the MS of the fourth edition, which did not appear until after mid-April 1700 (Yolton p. 80). Coste had begun to translate Locke's essay in 1695, using the third edition; in 1697 he moved to Oates, where Locke was living, and continued work under the author's supervision. Locke was keen to see his work available to a wider audience than the English editions might reach, and he worked closely with Coste. Jean Le Clerc testified that Coste 'le traduisit avec beaucoup de soin, de fidelité & netteté, sous ses [i.e. Locke's] yeux, & cette version est très-estimée'. Nidditch points out that Coste did not include all the changes from earlier editions which appear in the fourth, but two new chapters (2.33 on the association of ideas; and 4.19 on enthusiasm) which were due to appear are included. The French translation also includes a short prefatory address 'Monsieur Locke au libraire', in which Locke writes to Henri Schelte recommending the translation: Yolton points out that this must be part of a letter from Locke to Schelte (not printed in de Beer's edition) which first appears here. Thus Coste's translation is a significant first edition in the Locke canon, publishing several important changes for the first time and including an original contribution by Locke in the form of his letter to the publisher. This copy has the last leaf of the contents (f. 8*1) in the first state. This variant seems not to be known to Yolton, but comparison with another copy of this book seen shows that the errata on the verso were increased in a subsequent printing. In this state there are 33 errata, ending with one from p. 895; in the other state there are 43 errata, ending with one from p. 927: clearly the second is the latter state, as more errata must have been included as they were found. Yolton 91.
Seller: Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB, Henley-on-Thames, OXON, United Kingdom
Price: US$1316.82 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition thus, fine condition. Essai philosophique concernant l'entendement humain Special Collection by John Locke; Pierre Coste. Published by Chez Henri Schelte in 1700. Hardcover. First French translation by Pierre Coste 1668-1747 of Locke's 1632-1704 philosophical work, 1st published in 1690. Collectible item in excellent condition.
Seller: Collectors' Bookstore, Deurne, Belgium
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: The first edition in French of this classic of human thought. Locke's monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one of the first great defenses of modern empiricism and concerns itself with determining the limits of human understanding in respect to a wide spectrum of topics. Regarded as among the most important Enlightenment thinkers, Locke (1632-1704) greatly influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries. Quarto: [56], 936, [22] p. with an engraved frontispiece portrait. Full period vellum binding, with a red morocco spine label, five raised bands, and decorative blind stamping. Light spotting to the endpapers, with a small bookplate to the front pastedown. The front joint is just starting. A bit of bowing to the boards, which are stained and soiled, more so along the spine and extremities, with some scuffing to the spine label.
Seller: johnson rare books & archives, ABAA, Covina, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH. Large quarto. Portrait of Locke. 937pp. Contemporary full calf. Spine is decoratively tooled in gilt compartments with red morocco gilt lettering label. An excellent copy with clean pages. First edition in French of John Locke's Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. Undoubtedly, the most important work of its author, and a major work in the history of philosophy in that it inaugurated empiricism, rejecting the possibility of any innate idea and basing all human knowledge on experience, i.e., sensations and observation, reflection constituting the second essential foundation for the creation of all ideas. Finally, Locke places man at the origin of knowledge and symbolizes the Enlightenment movement through his liberal philosophy. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding was first published in London in 1689 (although the edition was dated 1690). The book is divided into 4 books: Book I: Innate Notions. Locke shows that to say that an idea is innate means that the soul naturally perceives that idea: this is the meaning of this doctrine. So there can be no innate idea unnoticed. In fact, the only thing Locke concedes to innateness is the fact that the faculty of understanding is innate. Book II: Ideas. In the Essay on Human Understanding, Locke distinguishes between two kinds of ideas: simple ideas and compound ideas. "Nothing is more evident to a man than the clear and distinct perception he has of these simple ideas." Book III: Words. It is the name which founds and seals in mixed ideas that union of several ideas which has no foundation in nature. Genera and species, therefore, have no real existence in things themselves or in nature, but are an artifice of the mind to express more easily this or that collection of simple ideas by a single general term. Book IV: Of Knowledge. Locke seeks to identify the limits of our knowledge. Our ignorance comes from our lack of ideas, the lack of visible connections between our ideas, or our lack of scrutiny of them. A stellar copy.
Seller: Reginald C. Williams Rare Books, Glendale, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: 1 blank leaf + leaf with portrait of Locke on verso + TP + [i]-[iv] = Dedication + [v]-[xii] = Avertissement du Traducteur + [xiii] = Monsieur Locke au Libraire + [xiv]-[xxvi] = Preface de L'Auteur + [xxvii]-[liv] = Table des Matiéres (Contents) + 1-936 + [937]-[957] = Table des Principales Matieres + [958] = Privilegie + 1 blank leaf, Quarto. Yolton 91.First edition in French of John Locke s Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (first published in English in 1690). As noted on the title page, this edition has been "Traduit de l Anglois de Mr. Locke, par Pierre Coste, sur la quatriéme edition, revûë, corrigée, & augmentée par l auteur" (Translated from the English of Mr. Locke by Pierre Coste from the fourth edtion, revued, corrected and added to by the author.) NOTE: The fourth edition (of 1700) was not yet published when this French edition appeared.Engraved frontispiece portrait of Locke by "P. a Gunst" after J. Greenhill. Woodcut printer s device on TP. Decorative woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials.Because French rather than English was the universal langauge, Locke's continental readers were dependent initially upon reviews in French-language journals - Basnage de Beauval's Histoire des ouvrages des savans, Bernard's Nouvelles de la république des lettres, and (most especially) Le Clerc's Bibliothèque universelle and its successors. Interested parties such as Limborch and Leibniz did not really come to grips with the Essay until it had been translated into French. This was accomplished in 1700 by Pierre Coste. Coste, like Le Clerc, was a French Protestant refugee in Holland. In 1695, he translated Locke's Some thoughts concerning education into French and sent the author a copy. Locke was pleased, and Le Clerc encouraged the young man to begin translating the Essay. In 1697, Coste was invited to Locke's retreat at Oates, as tutor to the Masham children and as Locke's assistant. The translation was completed under Locke's supervision and was published in June 1700, prefaced by Locke's recommendation. Coste remained at Oates until Locke's death in 1704. Thereafter, in the midst of a busy literary career, he continued his work on the Essay, bringing out a revised edition in 1729. In this copy, the beautiful frontispiece has been bound after p. [iv] rather than opposite the title page. Beautifully bound eighteenth-century calf. The spine is decoratively tooled in gilt compartments with red morocco gilt lettering label. Both front and back boards each with a single unobtrusive gouge. Joints and head of spine expertly and unobtrusively repaired. Some foxing and occasional browning with a few small light stains on title page. An excellent copy of this scarce and important edition. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Seller: Athena Rare Books ABAA, Fairfield, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$3292.04 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: In-4 (239 x 185 mm) de un portrait, 28 ff.n.ch., 936 pp.ch., 11 ff.n.ch. Veau, dos à nerfs orné (reliure de l'époque). Cf. PMM, 164; DSB, VIII, 436-440. Première édition française, traduite par Coste et revue par l'auteur. Ouvrage capital du célèbre philosophe anglais John Locke (1632-1704), l'un des plus grands théoriciens de l'empirisme. "Locke was the first to take up the challenge of Bacon and to attempt to estimate critically the certainty and the adequacy of human knowledge when confronted with God and the universe.Locke's design was less penetrating and subtle [than that designed by Hume or Kant] but it covers a remarkably wide field of investigation into human knowledge: it is the first modern attempt to analyse it" (P.M.M.) Bel exemplaire.(inv 10153)
Seller: CLAVREUIL, Paris, France