Two Treatises Of Government by John Locke - 1764, 6th Edition

Author: Locke, John 
Title: Two Treatises Of Government 
Publisher: A. Millar et al 
Date: 1764 
Place: London 
Dimensions: 8vo 20.5cm x 13.5cm 

xii+416pp
1st Hollis edition, 6th edition overall.

Brown mottled calf tightback binding, 5 raised bands to spine with gilt roses tooled to compartments. Titles in burgundy compartment label. Marbled edges and endpapers. Frontispiece portrait of Locke by Giovanni Battista Cipriani.

John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government is a foundational work of political philosophy, specifically Social Contract Theory: the willful, or tacitly agreed to, limitation of an individual’s rights by the authority of a government, which in turn is tasked with ruling in a way that creates a stable society that guarantees individual rights to life, liberty and property. In this work Locke argues that citizens have the right - and sometimes the obligation - to revolt against and overthrow tyrannical rulers, an argument that inspired the great revolutions of the 18th century.

As with many of his more seditious works, Locke never acknowledged authorship during his lifetime. Locke’s advocacy for the principle of liberty and a social contract theory of government argued in this text are essential expressions of Enlightenment ideals and form the basis of modern liberal democracy.

This edition, the sixth, was edited and distributed by Thomas Hollis.

Thomas Hollis of Lincoln Inn was a wealthy English connoisseur and collector of art and antiquities. Hollis devoted 16 years of his life to promoting the ideals of civil and religious liberty by collecting and distributing works - often rare or important editions and manuscripts - on these subjects to individuals and institutions throughout Britain, Europe and America. Where works Hollis deemed important were out of print he commissioned new ones, as with the current volume. He is best known to modern bibliophiles for the distinctive and elaborately decorated bindings he would furnish these in. He is considered by many to have had a profound - though often overlooked - influence on the American and European revolutions through this work.

Beneath the title on the colophon is the motto: “Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto” which translates as “the welfare of the people shall be the supreme law” - this was adopted as the official state motto of the State of Missouri.

Bookplate of George Rous to front paste down. Rous was an English parliamentarian in the House of Commons from 1776 to 1780 and participated in debates around American independence. After serving a term in parliament Rous was appointed counsel to the British East India Company, a post he occupied until the end of his life.

Headcap rebuilt and boards supported by minimal intervention, Japanese tissue repair using the Etherington method, otherwise unsophisticated - boards slightly splayed. Portrait offsetting to title page. Some offsetting of text at pp144/145, 156/157, 160/161, soiling and a small hole (2mm) to the foot of pp179. Scattered foxing. 

A very good copy indeed.

A revolutionary text for its time, in an edition distributed to revolutionaries by an important agent in the spread of liberal ideas throughout the world.

No 35 in Yolton.

- W.H. Bond, Thomas Hollis of Lnicoln’s Inn: A Whig and His Books, 1990
- Robbins, Caroline. Library of Liberty-Assembled for Harvard College by Thomas Hollis of Lincoln's Inn, Harvard Library bulletin, (5) Winter and Spring 1951