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HOBBES, Thomas (1588-1679)
Leviathan: of van de stoffe, gedaente, ende magt van de kerckelycke ende wereltlycke regeeringe.
Tot Amsterdam, by Jacobus Wagenaar 1667.
[XVI],744,[64]p. With an engraved frontispiece, engraved portrait and folding table. Contemp. overlapping vellum, some dust soiling. Mild browning throughout, some gatherings heavier due to paper quality, as is usual for this book.
€ 3500

First Dutch edition, first issue. This translation has been attributed to Abraham van Berckel (or Berkel) (1639/40-1686), a physician, classicist and freethinker, and a good friend of Spinoza. It was forbidden by the Court of Holland on 19 July 1674 as ‘blasphemous and pernicious for the soul'.
Hobbes' influence on Spinoza's political ideas seems indisputable. A Latin translation of Leviathan appeared in 1668 in Amsterdam when Spinoza was working on his Tractatus, and he had a copy of Hobbes' De cive in his library.
*Macdonald & Hargreaves 47. Knuttel, Verboden boeken 185