Author: HOBBES.- R.B.- BLACKBURNE, R.- AUBREY.- Vita.- 1682.-
Title: Magni Philosophi Thomae Hobbes Malmesburiensis Vita. Partim per se ipsum & Reliqua per Dr. R.B. [=Richard Blackburne] Conscripta]. cum elencho Authorum qui pro & Contra ipsum Scripsere. Et Catalogo Librorum per eundem editorum & Scriptorum.
Description: (London), no publisher. 'Juxta Exemplar Londini Impressum', 1682. 12mo. [meas. appr. 8 x 13.5 cm]. Small woodc. vign. on printed title. In simple 20th c. marbled paper covers, some discol. [A - F12, G10]. (164 pp.). (A1,2,3 righthand and lower blank margin a dark [ink?] spot ca 1 x 1 cm; quire E [pp. 997 - 116] a vague watersp. in lower blank righthand corner, getting smaller w. each leaf, E1 to 4 more pronounced.).(Upper righthand corner pp. 130 - to end a vague watersp.).). (Bookplate 'GB'on upper paste down.). Rare biography of Thomas Hobbes [1588 - 1679], accompanied by a survey of his printed work and the works against him, published without the name of the publisher and under the letters [Dr.] R.B. only [Richard Blackburne]. This rare 12mo edition 1682 only present in a small number of libraries worldwide. The British Museum Catalogue of printed books, lists 5 books that appeared in close succession after Hobbes' death, viz. the poetry version by Hobbes himself [1679, also known as the 'Vita Carmine Expressa'], the english translation thereof [1680], followed by the 1681 [Blackburne edited] 8vo and 4to eds., all w. the publisher's town of Carolopoli, behind which we assume is the printer William Crooke. The rare 1682 edition [no place, no publisher, but based on the London 1680] goes back to the 1680 edition which leaned heavily on the collector Aubrey, who had been collecting biographical material on Hobbes for many years, but recognized that he was more a collector than an editor and subsequently turned over the work to Richard Blackburne. Blackburne also appears responsible for the change in the last 2 lines of the 'Carmina'. Comp. Wing items 2267 [1679], 2268 [181 8vo], 2269 [1682 4to]. This edition NOT in Wing.

Keywords: bibliografie philosophy bibliography Viref