Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit.

Riga & Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch,, 1784-91. Our earth is a star among stars First edition of Herder's best-known and most ambitious work, "the great achievement of [his] first decade in Weimar... which combined his cyclical organic conception (the birth, growth, and death of civilizations and their manifestations) with an idea of progress, which he was one of the first not to perceive in terms of a linear development" (Garland & Garland, p. 390). Herder is commonly regarded as the leader of the romantic reaction to Enlightenment rationalism. He has been claimed as a forerunner of figures as diverse as Comte, Darwin, and Wagner, and, for his emphasis on the concepts of social patterns and social growth, anticipated the rise of modern sociology. This work opens with the assertion that "our earth is a star among stars", reflecting his intent to place mankind within its geophysical context. The present "Großen" quarto format is distinguished by Goedeke from the "Kleinen Ausgabe" published between 1785-92. There is some variation in the collation of the first volume, namely in the placement and signing of the two contents leaves, and in the inclusion of an imprint leaf. The present matches the University of Ghent copy; the contents leaves (signed *1-2) are bound in between the foreword and the volume half-title, and the imprint appears underneath the last block of text on the final page (p. 318). In other copies, such as that at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the contents leaves are signed as part of the final 2P gathering and the imprint is found not on p. 318 but rather on a separate final leaf (2P4). Others, like the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek copy, are a mixture, with the contents at the close of the volume but without the imprint on either the final page or as a separate leaf. Four volumes, small quarto (196 x 151 mm). Contemporary marbled half sheep, green paper label lettered in gilt and gilt volume number to spines, marbled endpapers, red edges. Neat contemporary ownership signature to front free endpapers. Bound without *4 (blank other than imprint) in vol. II. Trivial wear to corners, slight foxing and light browning to contents, light staining in early leaves of vol. III; an excellent, well preserved copy. Goedeke IV (2nd edition), 229, 67. Henry Burnand Garland & Mary Garland, The Oxford Companion to German Literature, 1986.