London: Printed for Awnsham Churchill, 1690 (but 1689). First edition (with quire Q in second, of two, settings, per Yolton/Laslett). 8vo. (xii), 464, 269-271 pp.; without final errata leaf ("usually" found, per Yolton). Title-page within double rule; License leaf, dated August 23, 1689; sectional title-page for Book II. Modern tan cloth, titled in gilt on upper spine, "G.L.M." in gilt on lower spine; all edges trimmed; License leaf repaired in gutter; three ownership signatures on title-page (near-contemporary and later): "John Guild (Bot. in Octr. 1763)", "A.C. Fraser", "B. Laing"; Locke's name supplied twice in manuscript on title-page; scattered but extensive modern pencil underlining, and some pencil marginalia; some contemporary underlining in ink; "IB" added in contemporary manuscript at bottom of I1; repair bottom edge Cc3; scattered light spotting to text. From the library of German-American cultural and social historian George L. Mosse (1918-99), and with his initials in gilt at foot of spine. Yolton 29; Laslett 1; ESTC R2930; Wing L-2766; Printing and the Mind of Man 163

Very rare first edition of John Locke's foundational text on civil society and the nature of government. Published at the end of 1689 in an edition of likely only 1,000 copies. The first part of Locke's work is a refutation of Robert Filmer's 1680 work Patriarcha, defending the divine right of kings, while the second part delineates Locke's influential ideas regarding the origin and purposes of civil government. Locke's argument that men are by nature free and equal, and that people have the right to life, liberty, and property, would provide the intellectual bedrock for the American and French Revolutions.

According to RBH, this is only the fourth copy to come to auction since 1981 (one of which was defective).