Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...

Hamburg: Henricum Kunraht, 1670.

(Item #2402) Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. Baruch Spinoza.

Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...

Hamburg: Henricum Kunraht, 1670. First Edition. First issue, with the fictitious printer's name spelled "Kunraht" and 104 misnumbered "304." Quarto (200 x 155 mm) with Roman, Hebrew, and Italic types. Final blank removed, else complete with all the typographical errors listed in the errata uncorrected. Modern rebinding with medieval antiphonal on vellum and modern endpapers. Title dust-soiled and repaired at gutter; minor staining to quire G. An exceptionally rare early philosophical text.

Spinoza's most important philosophical work, bridging political theory and Biblical history. Besides his contributions to Descartes' Principia, it was the only one of his texts to be printed in his lifetime. "Spinoza's reputation as a political thinker is eclipsed by his reputation as a rationalist metaphysician. Nevertheless, Spinoza was a penetrating political theorist whose writing have enduring significance...his account of civil organization, grounded in psychological realism, stands as an important contribution to the development of constitutionalism and the rule of law" (Stanford). In the present work, Spinoza combines "Cartesian rationalism and the Hebraic tradition in which he grew up, [and it] is a solitary but crystal clear exposition of the theory of natural right. He defends with eloquence the liberty of thought and speech in speculative matters, and the Tractatus contains the first clear statement of the independence of each other of philosophy and religion" (PMM). A critical piece in the history of political ethics.

PMM 153.
(Item #2402)

Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus...