B.d.S. opera posthuma: quorum series post praefationem exhibetur.

Amsterdam: Jan Rieuwertsz, 1677. Very Good. Quarto (21 cm); [40], 614, [34], 112, [8] pages. Woodcut device on title page; tail-pieces; initials. Woodcut diagrams and illustrations in text. Text mostly in Latin, some translated from Dutch, and some in Hebrew. Contents: I. Ethica, more geometrico demonstrata -- II. Politica -- III. De emendatione intellectus -- IV. Epistolae, & ad eas responsiones -- V. Compendium grammatices linguae Hebraeae. Full golden brown calf tooled in blind with border rules and panel rules enclosing small tooled fleurons, larger vegetal ornaments at corners of panel extending out toward the edges. Subtly rebacked. Speckled edges. Old ownership inscription on title page of "T. Lynford," possibly Thomas Lynford (d. 1724), a British divine once canon of Westminster Abbey. Title page slightly browned at edges, but otherwise an unmarred copy in excellent condition! Reference: Norman, 1988; see also PMM 153 ("The 'Opera posthuma' ... have served, then and since, ... to immortalize his name.")

First edition of Spinoza's most influential philosophical work, "Ethics," in which the philosopher laid out a pathway to recognizing vast realities such as eternity, love, and freedom. In a true shift away from religious tribalism, Spinoza approached the universe as a single entity, a unity of all things, expressed in the controversial phrase "Deus sive Natura," erasing the distinction between the Creator and the Created. "Ethics is thus considered the first systematic exposition of pantheism, the philosophy in which God is identified with the entire universe" (Norman). Contents also include first printings of his correspondence (some of which deals with optics, the telescope, and his views on Descartes) and a simple Hebrew grammar composed at the request of friends.