This volume publishes the entirety of Hobbes's MS E.1.A, "Old Catalogue," the 1630s catalogue of the Hardwick/Chatsworth library. Talaska provides handwriting samples and a full discussion of the problem of identifying Hobbes's handwriting to prove that the "Old Catalogue" is in Hobbes's own handwriting. Talaska goes on to prove that almost all the books in the library were purchased by the Devonshires for Hobbes's own purposes, and shows that the Catalogue dates to the 1630s. Illustrations of the catalogue are provided. Hobbes's listings, which give only author's last name, short title, and printer's format, are filled out with full bibliographic information, making it possible for Talaska to date the catalogue and for the reader to find the editions listed. This work will be essential for those studying the intellectual influences upon Hobbes from the time of his Oxford years until the late 1630s. Long delayed by the author's premature death, this work is now available in PDF format. CONTENTS Note from the Publisher Author's Preface Introduction Part 1: MS E.1.A. "Old Catalogue" and Hobbes's Early Intellectual Life - Hobbes's MS E.1.A - Hobbes's Oxford Education - MS E.1.A. and other Catalogues and Lists of Books at Chatsworth - Hobbesian Authorship of MS E.1.A. and Responsibility for the Contents of the Library - Analysis of Hobbes's Handwriting and MS E.1.A. - Photocopies of Various Handwriting Samples - Preliminary Study of the Contents of E.1.A. and Hobbes's Early Intellectual Development - Dating E.1.A. - Principles of Editing MS E.1.A. Part 2: E.1.A. "Old Catalogue," Edited with Commentary - I: "Libri Theologici" - II: General Works in Classical Languages and English - III: General Works in Contemporary European Languages Bibliography List of Illustrations "A masterpiece of scholarship and detective work."-- Arlene Saxonhouse

Thomas Hobbes claimed to have founded the discipline of civil philosophy. This book offers a new reading of his intellectual development, arguing that he was dubious about the place of rhetoric in civil society and came to see it as a pernicious presence within philosophy - a position from which he did not retreat.

State of Nature or Eden? Thomas Hobbes and his Contemporaries on the Natural Condition of Human Beings aims to explain how Hobbes's state of nature was understood by a contemporary readership, whose most important reference point for such a condition was the original condition of human beings at the creation, in other words in Eden. The book uses ideas about how readers brought their own reading of other texts to any reading, that reading is affected by the context in which the reader reads, and that the Bible was the model for all reading in the early modern period. It combines these ideas with the primary evidence of the contemporary critical reaction to Hobbes, to reconstruct how Hobbes's state of nature was read by his contemporaries. The book argues that what determined how Hobbes's seventeenth century readers responded to his description of the state of nature were their views on the effects of the Fall. Hobbes's contemporary critics, the majority of whom were Aristotelians and Arminians, thought that the Fall had corrupted human nature, although not to the extent implied by Hobbes's description. Further, they wanted to look at human beings as they should have been, or ought to be. Hobbes, on the other hand, wanted to look at human beings as they were, and in doing so was closer to Augustinian, Lutheran and Reformed interpretations, which argued that nature had been inverted by the Fall. For those of Hobbes's contemporaries who shared these theological assumptions, there were important parallels to be seen between Hobbes's account and that of scripture, although on some points his description could have been seen as a subversion of scripture. The book also demonstrates that Hobbes was working within the Protestant tradition, as well as showing how he used different aspects of this tradition. Helen Thornton is an Independent Scholar. She completed her PhD at the University of Hull.

Reading Hobbes Backwards treats Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) as a peace theorist, who from early manuscripts of his system made by disciples in England and France, to the late Historia Ecclesiastica, saw sectarianism and Trinitarian doctrines supporting the papal monarchy as the ultimate cause of the punishing religious wars of the post-Reformation. But Hobbes was also indebted to scholasticism and the millennia-old Aristotle commentary tradition, Greek, Byzantine, Jewish and Islamic, surviving in the universities of Paris and Oxford, naming his ‘English Politiques’ Leviathan after the scaly monster of the Book of Job, perhaps as a decoy. Politically connected through Cavendish circles and the Virginia Company, Hobbes was a courtier’s client who, until Leviathan, could not speak in his own voice. Adept at ‘political surrogacy’, he authored satires and burlesques which he could own or disown, while promoting the moral education of classical civic humanism against sectarianism. The Appendix provides a synopsis of his relatively inaccessible Latin Church History, an exercise in ‘clandestine philosophy’ from which Hobbes’s intentions in Leviathan can be read off. Chapters are referenced and cross-referenced to be read independently, serving both as reference work and text-book.

Beginning with new evidence that cites the presence of books in Roman villas and concluding with present day vicissitudes of collecting, this generously illustrated book presents a complete survey of British and Irish country house libraries. Replete with engaging anecdotes about owners and librarians, the book features fascinating information on acquisition bordering on obsession, the process of designing library architecture, and the care (and neglect) of collections. The author also disputes the notion that these libraries were merely for show, arguing that many of them were profoundly scholarly, assembled with meticulous care, and frequently used for intellectual pursuits. For those who love books and the libraries in which they are collected and stored, The Country House Library is an essential volume to own.