Featured Work First Edition, with additional engraved title page and folding table. “Leviathan” was written during the English Civil War (1642-1651) by Thomas Hobbes, where he asserts that civil war and anarchy can only be avoided by having a strong, undivided...
Liberty & Dignity Articles
The Common-wealth of Oceana by James Harrington
Featured Work First Edition. James Harrington’s great Utopian political treatise, “The Common-Wealth of Oceana,” was published in 1656. “Oceana” was published in two first editions for Daniel Pakeman and Livewell Chapman (presented here) by John Streater with their...
The Trial of John Peter Zenger
Featured Work Published in Dublin in 1738 under the title, “The Trial of John Peter Zenger,” this volume was originally published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1738 as “A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger.” It contains the pleadings and...
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Featured Work First English Edition. “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli first appeared in 1513 in a correspondence version under the title, “De Principatibus.” It was first published five years after Machiavelli’s death in 1532 in Italian by Antonio Blado d'Asola....
De Officis by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Featured Work Manuscript in Latin, on paper. This manuscript of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s “De Officis” was prepared for Nicolai Renciade by an unknown scribe in 1446. Renciade was a student of Giovanni de Juvianello, a professor of grammar, rhetoric, and poetics in...
The Proceedings of the House with Respect to the Petitions for a Repeal of the Alien and Sedition Laws
Featured Work First Edition. This work contains the House Committee Report and the speeches of John Nicholas, a Virginia Congressman, and Albert Gallatin, a representative from Pennsylvania, about the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by the fifth Congress and signed...
Areopagitica by John Milton
Featured Work First Edition. “Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton For the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, To the Parlament of England” was written by English poet John Milton and published in 1644. It was written in opposition to licensing and censorship. In the...
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Featured Work Second Edition of Part I, in two volumes with original foldout map. Published in two parts, the first published in 1835 and the second volume published in 1840. “Democracy in America” was a result of Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont’s 1831-1832 tour...
Citie of God by Augustine of Hippo
Featured Work First Edition in English. This work is Augustine of Hippo’s classic book of Christian philosophy entitled “Citie of God,” translated by John Healey from the Latin version and edited by Ioannes Lodovicus Vives (Juan Luis Vives) with Vives learned...