Olympia-2015

58. HEMSTERHUIS, François. Alexis ou De l’age d’or. Riga, Hartknoch, 1787.8vo, pp. 188, [2, blank]; with the rare foldout plate comprisinga diagram bound at the end; small stain to the top corner of thetitle-page, some very occasional very light soiling and foxing,but a very clean and crisp copy in contemporary greenmorocco, gilt sides with rolled and filleted borders, rosettes andcorner-pieces with dragonfly tools, flat spine tooled in gilt withacorns and fleurons, red morocco lettering-piece, gilt inner andouter dentelles, preserving the original pink silk bookmark,boards slightly warped, sides a little rubbed; contemporarymanuscript quotation from Ovid at foot of p.171; from thelibrary of the scholar and book historian Piet Buijnsters andhis wife Leontine, with their bookplate to front pastedown‘Collectie Buijnsters Smets’. £1750First edition, rare, of an influential work of pre-Romantic aesthetics. Alexis isone of four Platonic dialogues written by the Dutch philosopher FrançoisHemsterhuis, and is one of his most important works. Although written in 1783 itdid not appear in print until this edition of 1787, with a German edition appearingin the same year. ‘In Alexis Hemsterhuis, perhaps influenced by contemporaryGerman philosophy, presented for the first time his concept of the golden age andthe harmonious development of the individual. He also introduced the notion ofthe value of poetical truth (truth discovered by the poet in moments of enthusiasm)… his thought was received with admiration and approval by representatives of theSturm und Drang and romantic movements in philosophy’ (Encyclopedia ofPhilosophy III, 474).A fairly rare item; Copac only records 2 copies in the UK, while Worldcat notes 6copies in the US.59. JESSOP, Thomas Edmund. [Manuscript notes for a course of lecturesgiven at Hull University]. [N. p., n. d., probably 1940s].Manuscript on paper, 4to, a notebook of c. 100 leaves, c. 35 lines to a page, inJessop’s minute but legible hand, blue and black ink; with interlinear andmarginal corrections and additions, and numerous manuscript notes, cuttings,bookmarks, and a few letters loosely inserted; a well-preserved archive, bound incontemporary cloth-backed boards, upper side lettered ‘University College of Hull’in gilt, paper label hand-lettered ‘British Philosophy’; upper joint partly split.£1750Unpublished substantial small archive gathering manuscript lecture notes onBritish philosophy by T. E. Jessop (1896–1980), the eminent scholar andbibliographer of Berkeley, Hume and the Scottish Enlightenment. The lecturenotes concern Bacon (ff. 11-31), Hobbes (ff. 35-62), and Locke (ff. 65-98).Born in Huddersfield and educated at the University of Leeds then Oriel College,Oxford, Jessop started as an assistant lecturer at the University of Glasgow from1925 to 1928. He ‘became the first member of the Philosophy Department at theUniversity of Hull, serving as its sole member for seventeen years, while alsoteaching courses for the psychology degree. He was the first Ferens Professor of