LEVIATHAN
OR THE MATTER, FORME, & POWER OF A COMMON-WEALTH
ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVILL
by Thomas Hobbes
Printed Book Study
Melissa Townsend-Crow
San Jose State University
Prof. Elizabeth Wrenn-Estes
LIBR 280-12
April 7, 2013
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Author
III. Title
IV. Context
V. Composition
A.
Dedication and explicit
B.
Colophon and Printer's Device
C.
Foliation/pagination
E.
Endleaves and flyleaves
VI.
Summary
VII.
References
Introduction
When
I was looking for a book to study, I was fresh from the experience of seeing
the Medieval manuscripts at the Huntington. My criteria for selecting a printed
book for this study was, "The older the better!" I also wanted access
to the actual material of the study rather than looking at it through a glass
case or studying something online only. I am an alumni of the University of
Southern California and so I believed that I would have a better chance of
having access to their special collection materials. As it turns out, USC is
very accommodating to not only those affiliated with the university, but also
the general public and so I went to USC Libraries website and started following
links until I found the Special Collections Rare Book page. The date 1651
caught my eye. It was Hobbes's Leviathan. I had read this book and also Locke's work as
an undergraduate English major, but it had been several years and I remembered
the two authors in reverse. I hadn't cared for Hobbes's work, though I liked
Locke's theories. So, instead of paging the Locke manuscript, I sent an e-mail
to USC Libraries' Special Collections Department and requested that Hobbes be
paged. Despite my distaste for Hobbes's
heavy-handed, dogmatic, theosophy and general cynicism on the subject of human
nature, it was still a thrill to actually handle a book that had been printed
almost 400 years ago.
Author
Thomas
Hobbes was born in London, England during the reign of Elizabeth I in 1588. His
father was a clergyman– which explains quite a bit of the text of Leviathan
– in nearby Malmesbury, so his uncle, who was a tradesman and government
official provided for Thomas's education.
He studied the Classics at Magdalen Hall in Oxford from the age of
fourteen until he was 20. He became a private tutor to the Cavendish family,
forging a lifelong connection to them, and traveled extensively over the world
with his students, studying politics and world governments. Around
1630, he wrote his Short Tract on First Principles which employed Euclid's
formula. He fled to Paris at the start of the English civil war in 1642 where,
eventually, he became a mathematics tutor to the Prince of Wales who had also
fled to France to escape the danger of the civil war (between Royalists and
Parliamentalists) in around1646. In 1651, the same year Leviathan was
published, Hobbes returned to England. Years later (around 1667), Leviathan
was the center of controversy when it was brought up in the House of Commons in
reference to a law that was to be against blasphemous literature. According to
the European Graduate School website:
Context
As his mother was waiting to give
birth, the Spanish Armada was sailing up the Thames in preparation to attack
and she went into premature labor. Hobbes wrote, "my mother gave birth to twins, myself and
fear." Perhaps this atmosphere of war and terror under which Hobbes was born is why the theme of
most of his writing is fear. It may have led to his cynicism and led him to the
belief that life was "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and
short" (Hobbes, 2012, p. 57)
Title
The full title of the piece is LEVIATHAN: OR THE MATTER, FORME, &
POWER OF A COMMON-WEALTH ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVILL.
Dedication
The Introduction is an epistolary
dedication address to "M. Francis Godolphin" and signed by Hobbes
from Paris on April15/25, 1651. In
it, Hobbes addresses Godolphin, telling him that in honour of his brother,
Sidney Godolphin, he was dedicating this manuscript: "in honour and gratitude to him, and with
devotion to your selfe, I humbly Dedicate unto you this my discourse of
Common-wealth. I know not how the world will receive it, nor how it may reflect
on those that shall seem to favour it" (Hobbes 2012). Sir Francis was a
member of parliament, his brother Sidney, also a member of Parliament as well
as a poet. The family were, like Hobbes, loyal to the monarchy and as a result
of this loyalty, he lost his seat in Parliament when the king was deposed. He
was reinstated, however, after the English Restoration (of the Monarchy, around
1646) and he was knighted for his service at the coronation of Charles II, who
was the Prince of Wales to whom Hobbes served as tutor while in exile in
France.
Composition
Colophon
The
colophon appears on the title page:
I. Introduction
II. Author
IV. Context
V. Composition
A.
Dedication and explicit
B.
Colophon and Printer's Device
C.
Foliation/pagination
E.
Endleaves and flyleaves
VII. References
Introduction
When
I was looking for a book to study, I was fresh from the experience of seeing
the Medieval manuscripts at the Huntington. My criteria for selecting a printed
book for this study was, "The older the better!" I also wanted access
to the actual material of the study rather than looking at it through a glass
case or studying something online only. I am an alumni of the University of
Southern California and so I believed that I would have a better chance of
having access to their special collection materials. As it turns out, USC is
very accommodating to not only those affiliated with the university, but also
the general public and so I went to USC Libraries website and started following
links until I found the Special Collections Rare Book page. The date 1651
caught my eye. It was Hobbes's Leviathan. I had read this book and also Locke's work as
an undergraduate English major, but it had been several years and I remembered
the two authors in reverse. I hadn't cared for Hobbes's work, though I liked
Locke's theories. So, instead of paging the Locke manuscript, I sent an e-mail
to USC Libraries' Special Collections Department and requested that Hobbes be
paged. Despite my distaste for Hobbes's
heavy-handed, dogmatic, theosophy and general cynicism on the subject of human
nature, it was still a thrill to actually handle a book that had been printed
almost 400 years ago.
Leviathan
by Thomas Hobbes was published by the Crooke Brothers, specifically Andrew
Crooke in London and printed in 1651. The books sold at St, Paul's Churchyard
were usually first editions as opposed to second hand book sales (Roberts
1995).
Author
Thomas
Hobbes was born in London, England during the reign of Elizabeth I in 1588. His
father was a clergyman– which explains quite a bit of the text of Leviathan
– in nearby Malmesbury, so his uncle, who was a tradesman and government
official provided for Thomas's education.
He studied the Classics at Magdalen Hall in Oxford from the age of
fourteen until he was 20. He became a private tutor to the Cavendish family,
forging a lifelong connection to them, and traveled extensively over the world
with his students, studying politics and world governments. Around
1630, he wrote his Short Tract on First Principles which employed Euclid's
formula. He fled to Paris at the start of the English civil war in 1642 where,
eventually, he became a mathematics tutor to the Prince of Wales who had also
fled to France to escape the danger of the civil war (between Royalists and
Parliamentalists) in around1646. In 1651, the same year Leviathan was
published, Hobbes returned to England. Years later (around 1667), Leviathan
was the center of controversy when it was brought up in the House of Commons in
reference to a law that was to be against blasphemous literature. According to
the European Graduate School website:
Although the bill did not pass
both houses, Hobbes was scared into studying the law of heresy, and wrote a
short treatise arguing that there was no court that might judge him. He was
forbidden to publish on the topic of religion. Many of his works were kept from
publication, however a Latin translation of Leviathan was published in
Amsterdam in 1668.
Thomas Hobbes continued to write political
and religious works, including his autobiography (in Latin) until he died at
the age of 91.
Context
As his mother was waiting to give
birth, the Spanish Armada was sailing up the Thames in preparation to attack
and she went into premature labor. Hobbes wrote, "my mother gave birth to twins, myself and
fear." Perhaps this atmosphere of war and terror under which Hobbes was born is why the theme of
most of his writing is fear. It may have led to his cynicism and led him to the
belief that life was "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and
short" (Hobbes, 2012, p. 57)
There Is Alwayes Warre Of Every One Against Every One Hereby it is
manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all
in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as
is of every man, against every man (Hobbes 2012, p. 56).
Like the Puritan that he was, Hobbes attributed this
state of constant war to "nature" and wrote that the only way to
peace is through the creation of a powerful government entity – a "leviathan"
– led by an absolute ruler/king:
For by Art is created that
great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH, or STATE, (in latine CIVITAS) which is
but an Artificiall Man; though of greater stature and strength than the
Naturall, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which, the
Soveraignty is an Artificiall Soul, as giving life and motion to the whole
body; (Hobbes 2012).
Title
The full title of the piece is LEVIATHAN: OR THE MATTER, FORME, &
POWER OF A COMMON-WEALTH ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVILL.
Dedication
The Introduction is an epistolary
dedication address to "M. Francis Godolphin" and signed by Hobbes
from Paris on April15/25, 1651. In
it, Hobbes addresses Godolphin, telling him that in honour of his brother,
Sidney Godolphin, he was dedicating this manuscript: "in honour and gratitude to him, and with
devotion to your selfe, I humbly Dedicate unto you this my discourse of
Common-wealth. I know not how the world will receive it, nor how it may reflect
on those that shall seem to favour it" (Hobbes 2012). Sir Francis was a
member of parliament, his brother Sidney, also a member of Parliament as well
as a poet. The family were, like Hobbes, loyal to the monarchy and as a result
of this loyalty, he lost his seat in Parliament when the king was deposed. He
was reinstated, however, after the English Restoration (of the Monarchy, around
1646) and he was knighted for his service at the coronation of Charles II, who
was the Prince of Wales to whom Hobbes served as tutor while in exile in
France.
Composition
Colophon
The
colophon appears on the title page:
This is the printer's device:
Foliation/pagination/Type
The pages are paper and
the texture appears to be what we now call "laid bond" – which means
that it was most likely milled solely from wood pulp with no rags. There were
no detectable watermarks in the pages. There is no rubrication nor any color
printing in the text of the book. In fact the only color in the book is the
found on the flyleaf and endpapers, though those are so colorful as to make up
for the lack within the actual book. The pages are bound with a gold
cold-coloured thread or cord into a brown leather cover decorated with gold
inlay, somewhat worn and faded now.
 |
Hobbes Leviathan has a cover that looks
similar to these
|
The edges of some of the pages, particularly in the
front of the book appear to have suffered damage, whether from rodents or
insects is not clear, but it looks like something was eating them. However, the
book is nearly four hundred years old, so it is possible that centuries of handling,
particularly turning these pages, might well have merely worn them to the point
of wear. The typeset is Roman serif with italics used for emphasis and the
lower case "s" looks like a lower case "f" and some, though
not all, of the "u" look like "v."
Illumination/Painting/Illustration
The only illustration in the book in the frontispiece,
a black and white ink drawing of a leviathan:
closer detail of the frontispiece illustration:
The British Library website offers an interesting
analysis of the illustration:
The famous cover engraving
provided Leviathan with an enduringly striking image. A crowned giant emerges
from the landscape, clutching a sword (a symbol of earthly power) and a crosier
(a symbol of church power). The torso and arms of the colossus are composed of
over three hundred humans, showing how the people are represented by their
contracted leader, who draws his strength from their collective agreement.
Underneath is a quote from the Book of Job: "Non est potestas Super Terram
quae Comparetur ei" ('There is no power on earth to be compared with
him'), linking the figure to the Biblical monster, mentioned in Job, that
Hobbes's book is named after.
One very
interesting feature on this page is what appears to be Thomas Hobbes signature
and is confirmed by the catalogue entry for this item in the USC Library
Catalog system, HOMER:
and another signature on the title page:
A note on the title page offers the provenance of the book and shows that it was purchased at "Eaton's Auction, though no further information such as when or for how much is currently available.
Endleaves
and flyleaves
These were covered with multicolored
papers which made me think that they were not part of the original book.
Primarily an olive or "avocado" green background and festooned with
orange, pink, ivory and metallic gold spirals and fleur de lys, the end papers
resembled something from the mid-1970s rather than something that would have
been used in the mid-17th century.
Summary
Hobbes's Leviathan
may not be my favorite text, but
there is something to be said for a book that has survived, not only
materially, but in the hearts and minds of people for almost 400 years. USC's copy is in pretty good shape and the
experience of visiting their special collections reading room to examine the
manuscript was a very positive one.
References
British Library Board, The. (N.D.) Hobbes's
Leviathan. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/takingliberties/staritems/55hobbesleviathan.html
on 04/06/13.
Champion, J. (N. D.) Decoding
the Leviathan: Doing the history of ideas through images,
1651–1714. retrieved from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/warwicknewberry/mellon-newberry/renaissanceandearlymoderncommunities/britishandamericanhistories/summerworkshop/18july/justin_champion022_chapter2013_hunter.pdf on 04/13/13.
European
Graduate School. (2013). Thomas Hobbes Biography. retrieved from http://www.egs.edu/library/thomas-hobbes/biography/
on 04/20.13.
Hobbes, Thomas (2012). Leviathan. Kindle Edition. Amazon
Digital Editions, LLC.
Hobbes, Thomas (1651). Leviathan. London, England: Andrew Crooke, Green Dragon, St. Paul's
Churchyard.
Roberts, W. (1995). St. Paul's
Churchyard and Neighborhood. Retrieved from http://www.djmcadam.com/st-pauls-churchyard.html
on 04/17/13.
SparkNotes Editors. (n.d.). SparkNote on Leviathan.
Retrieved April 12, 2013, from http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/leviathan/
University
of Southern California Special Collections Department (2008). About Rare Books. Retrieved from http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/arc/libraries/rarebooks/about.html on March 20, 2013.
University
of Southern California Libraries. (N.D.)
HOMER catalogue entry for Hobbes's Leviathan
retrieved from https://library.usc.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=Rt9GeLTEAf/DOHENY/52620036/2/1
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