James Harrington; John Toland, ed. THE OCEANA OF JAMES HARRINGTON, AND HIS OTHER WORKS; SOM WHEROF ARE NOW FIRST PUBLISH'D FROM HIS OWN MANUSCRIPTS. THE WHOLE COLLECTED, METHODIZ'D, AND REVIEW'D, WITH AN EXACT ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE PREFIX'D, BY JOHN TOLAND. London: Printed, and are to be sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1700. First collected edition. Blind-stamped leather, spine with blind-tooled compartments, raised bands, and gilt-titled morocco label, edges speckled. Small folio; [2], xliv, 546, [2 advertisement and final blank]pp. Title page printed in red and black, with engraved frontispiece, portrait of Harrington by P. Lely, plate opposite p. 113, printed marginalia, dedication, the Life of James Harrington, and final advertising leaf. ESTC R9111.

12 5/8 x 8 3/8 in.

Private North Carolina Collection

James Harrington (England, 1611-1677) was a writer and political theorist who is best known for his controversial work, The Commonwealth of Oceana, first published in 1656. This collected edition includes Oceana as well as The Grounds and Reasons of Monarchy Consider'd, The Prerogative of Popular Government, The Art of Lawgiving, and political tracts such as A System of Politics.

Boards with chips, scratches and several small faint stains, scuffing and edgewear with one corner heavily worn; spine with light cracking and creasing, chips at head and tail, lacking tail-band, morocco label separating with a small chip, joints cracked with small area of glue at front joint, boards loose; endpapers with bookplate and heavy wear, including toning, foxing, damp staining, fraying and small losses, rear endpapers detached; interior with toning, scattered foxing, offsetting from plates, writing in ink on title page and endpapers, with occasional pencil underlining, grime or residue, and small areas of damp staining at upper margin or corner, several pages with minor paper loss or closed tear; a fragile yet complete volume with most pages quite crisp and clean.