LEIBNIZ. Oeuvres philosophiques latines & francoises.

Very rare first edition of the works of Leibniz. Very important first edition of the “Nouveaux Essais sur l'Entendement Humain” (New Essays on the Human Intellect), which cover most of the volume (up to p. 496). Composed in 1703, the New Essays are proposed as a systematic refutation of John Locke's 'Essay on Human Intellect' in the form of an imaginary dialogue between two characters: Philalète who defends the empiricist position borrowed from Locke and Theophilus who supports the rationalist option using the arguments forged by Leibniz.

The edition was published on the original manuscripts by the German scholar Rudolf Erich Raspe and with a preface by Abraham Gotthelf Kaestner, mathematician, professor at the University of Göttingen. Contains: Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain; Examen du sentiment du P. Malebranche que nous voyons tout en Dieu contre J. Locke; Dialogus de connexione inter res et verba, et veritatis realitate; Difficultates quaedam logicae; Discours touchant la méthode de la certitude et de l'art d'inventer pour finir les disputes …; Historia et commendatio linguae charactericae universalis.

Erich Raspe, the publisher, is known as the creator of the celebrated Baron Münchhausen. He dedicates the volume to Baron Gerlac Adolph de Münchhausen.

Müller, 'Leibniz-Bibliographie', 2155. River, 472. Stojan, 56. Yolton, 'John Locke, a Reference Guide', C.1765-4.

4to, 255 x 195 mm. Contemporary full leather binding, spine gilt, title gilt to spine, red edges, marbled endpapers. Engraved vignette on the red and black title-page, head-pieces and initials. Pages. [4], XVI, [2], 540, [17], 1 blanck.  Some page with slight sign of browning, sporadic foxing, good copy.