Milestones of Science Books

LEIBNIZ, Gottfried Wilhelm.

Essais De Theodicée Sur La Bonté De Dieu, La Liberté De L'Homme Et L'Origine Du Mal.

Amsterdam: Isaac Troyel, 1714.

2nd Edition. Hardcover. 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾" tall. Very Good. Item #002302

Three parts in two volumes. 12mo (163 x 93 mm). [36], 386; [2], 216, 132 pp. Drop title Discours de la conformite? de la foy avec la raison on page 1 of first volume, separate title-page to part two and separate pagination with drop title Reflections sur l'ouvrage que M. Hobbes on p.1 of third part in second volume. Contemporary leather, spines with 5 raised bands gilt in compartments (rubbed, old paper label to foot of spines). Internally only little browned, minor spotting in places. Provenance: College Royal de Juilly (shelf-mark to free endpaper, small stamp and inscription to title pages). A fine set of a very rare edition.

Second edition of the most popular work published in his lifetime. Consciously written at a popular level, this became the most widely read of his works. Leibniz coined the term "theodicy" here to mean "justice of God" or that branch of philosophy seeking to reconcile the existence of evil with the assumption of a benevolent God. Composed as a response to Pierre Bayle's view that faith and reason are in opposition, Leibniz tries to reconcile philosophy and theology.
"In the preface to the Theodicee, Leibniz declares that there are two famous labyrinths in which our reason goes astray: the one relates to the problem of liberty (which is the principal subject of the Theodicee), the other to the problem of continuity and the antimonies of the infinite" (DSB). The work was composed with the encouragement of Sophia Charlotte of Brandenburg, who wished a reply to Pierre Bayle's view that faith and reason are in opposition. The work includes a reply to the views of Thomas Hobbes on liberty, and a brief essay on the qualities of the deity.
A very rare issue of the second edition by Troyel with only two copies recorded in OCLC/Worldcat: Wolfenbüttel Herzog August Bibliothek and Dresden, Sächsisches Landesmuseum.

Price: 1,800 €  *  convert currency