Hobbes (Thomas) Leviathan, or The matter, forme, & power of a common-wealth ecclesiasticall and civill, first edition with errata uncorrected, engraved additional pictorial title by Abraham Bosse, folding letterpress table with repaired tear, lacking letterpress title, occasional foxing, light browning and some soiling, bookplate and ink inscription to endpapers and pastedown, contemporary calf, rebacked and recornered, surface wear to covers, [Macdonald & Hargreaves 42; Pforzheimer 491; PMM 138; Wing H2246], folio, for Andrew Crooke, 1651.

⁂ Hobbes' masterpiece of political philosophy. It was written while he was resident in Paris, and espouses the idea of a 'social contract' freely entered into between an absolute ruler and their subjects. The Roman Catholic Church placed the work on the Index of Prohibited Books for its idea that the sovereign should also act as head of the state's religion.