With directions for obedience to government in dangerous and doubtful times.
London: printed for
R. R. C. and are to be sold by
Thomas Axe,
1696.
JC153 .F49
8vo. 195 leaves, engraved portrait of Charles II as frontispiece; half-title for The Power of Kings on X
8, continuous signatures and pagination.
Not in Lowndes.
STC F920.
A London Bibliography of the Social Sciences III, 95.
This edition not in Seligman.
Old sheep; no label on the back, but with the title, Filmer / on / Government / lettered in ink in one of the compartments.
Initialled by Jefferson at sig. I and T. On the first two fly-leaves is written
In my defense God me defend, not by Jefferson. With the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate.
There is no mark of provenance in the book which may have been acquired by Jefferson in his purchase of the Bland books after
the death of Richard Bland, whose library is known to have contained a copy.
[2328]
With this is bound:
FILMER,
Sir Robert.
Patriarcha; or the natural power of kings. By the learned Sir Robert Filmer Baronet . . .
London: printed for
Ric. Chiswell,
Matthew Gillyflower and
William Henchman,
1680.
First Edition. Second issue. 8vo. 80 leaves with the first and last blank, collating in eights.
Lowndes II, 797.
STC F923.
A Lond Bibliography of the Social Sciences III, 591.
Seligman VI, 233.
Sir Robert Filmer, d. 1653, English political writer. The first edition of the
Observations was published in 1652. The other works mentioned in the title will be found in this catalogue.
The
Patriarcha was originally issued by Walter Davis in 1680. His issue has a portrait of Charles II by Van Hove, and an erratum on A
8 verso, with the catchword
Errata on the recto. In Chiswell’s issue there is no portrait, the verso of A
8 is blank, and the catchword omitted; the one erratum in the text is corrected. This work occasioned Sidney’s
Discourses on Government
, q.v., and Locke’s
Treatise on Government
, which is the next entry in Jefferson’s manuscript catalogue, but of which no copy seems to have been sold to Congress by him.
[2329]
J. 6
Sidney on government.
4
to.
1815 Catalogue, page 104. no. 368, as above.
SIDNEY,
Algernon.
Discourses concerning Government by Algernon Sydney with his Letters Trial Apology and some Memoirs of his life.
London: printed for
A. Millar,
mdcclxiii
. Or to the uniust tribunals under change of times. [1763]
JC153 .S5 1763
4to. 382 leaves, the last a blank; lacks the portrait by J. Basire.
Rebound in half red morocco by the Library of Congress, with the 1815 bookplate preserved. Some leaves foxed. Initialled by
Jefferson at sig. I and T.
Jefferson had a copy of this work credited to him ($
8.00) on a bill from John March in June 1807. He was familiar with it in 1771 as it is on the list of books he sent to Robert Skipwith in August of that year, and subsequently appears on many of his suggested reading lists.
A copy was bought in 1808 for the Library of Congress through
Cadell and Davies of London.
On November 22, 1804, the Rev. Mason Locke Weems wrote to Jefferson concerning this book: “. . . I had the hardiesse [sic] to ask of you a line, somewhat recommendatory of “Sidney’s Republic,” a work much extoll
d by Taylor, Rush, & Dickinson. But these, tho Great men & True, are, comparatively, but Stars of feeble light. and seen, only
by the Few--
"But your Excellency’s Wisdom, Humanity, and Rank, have made you as a Sun in our land; and one beam of your approbation thrown
on Sidneys Liberty pleading Vol w
d render it the dazzling ”
