Institutiones historiae philosophicae, usui academicae iuventutis adornatae. Editio secunda auctior et emendatior
Leipzig: Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, 1756. Second revised. Hardcover. Octavo. [20], 884, [16, indices]pp. Woodcut printer’s device at title, head- and tailpieces throughout, printed marginalia. Contemporary half tree calf over marbled boards, gilt morocco lettering piece at spine, speckled edges. Covers lightly rubbed at extremities; occasional mild, mostly marginal, foxing. A very good, clean copy, attractively bound.
Second, revised edition. First appearing in 1747, this condensed version of the author’s five-volume Historia Critica Philosophiae (1742-67) was long employed as the standard “Philosophy 101” textbook in German schools throughout the later eighteenth century. A follower of Leibniz, the German protestant minister Johann Jakob Brucker (1696-1770) is generally credited with establishing the history of philosophy as an academic discipline in Germany. Bamberger notes that the sections on Spinoza and the Spinozists (pp. 675-679) present a relatively objective, if not novel, account.
Annotations: A laid-in leaf contains two pages of notes in Latin, citing a discussion of the cabalistic doctrine of the transmigration of souls found in De resurrectione mortuorum (1636), a work by the celebrated Amsterdam rabbi, Menasseh ben Israel.
Provenance: From the library of Gerard Schimmelpenninck, with his engraved bookplate. Very Good. Item #49063
References: Brunet 1:1284. Ziegenfuss, Philosophen-Lexikon 1:150. Cf. Bamberger, Spinoza, 413.
Price: $450.00