Correspondence of Thomas Hobbes: The Correspondence of Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is one of the most important figures in the history of European philosophy. Although best known for his political theory, he also wrote about theology, metaphysics, physics, optics, mathematics, psychology, and literary criticism. All of these interests are reflected in his correspondence. Some small groups of his letters have been printed in the past (often in inaccurate transcriptions), but this edition is the first complete collectionof his correspondence, nearly half of which has never been printed before. All the letters have been transcribed from the original sources, and all materials in Latin, French, and Italian are printed together with translations in clear modern English. The letters are fully annotated, and there arelong biographical entries on all of his correspondents, based on extensive original research. The whole pattern of Hobbes's intellectual life and personal friendships is set in a new light. This is one of the most significant and valuable scholarly publications of this century.

These volumes are a tour de force of scholarly care and are preliminary to a full modern biography for which they whet the appetite ... Malcolm has maintained original spelling, erasures, alterations and punctuation and noted all signs of blots and blemishes., the publishing project of which it is a component makes this correspondence valuable, he is il miglior fabbro, to whom all of us who try to make sense of Hobbes's work should now defer. There is nothing in his new edition of Hobbes's correspondence ... which is solidly based on real scholarship ... Malcolm has equipped his edition with excellent notes to each letter, with first-rate translations of those not in English, and, above all, with 150 pages of brief lives of the contemporaries mentioned in the letters ... Putting the lives together in effect gives us a new biography of Hobbes himself ... one can feel nothing but gratitude for Malcolm's labours, and admiration at their outcome. Hobbes's philosophy will, for the first time, have a real editor; and also one day, we can now hope, a real author, superbly edited volumes ... The fluency and elegance of this translation is a fair sample of Noel Malcolm's skill. He has rounded off his Herculean labours with a biographical register that will be of value to all students of 17th-century culture and indispensable to anyone interested in Hobbes, superbly edited ... On the evidence of Noel Malcolm's editorship of these volumes his forthcoming biography should go as far as intelligence and sympathy and erudition can take us ... The fluency and elegance of this translation is a fair sample of Noel Malcolm's skill. He has rounded off his Herculean labours with a biographical register that will be of value to all students of 17th-century culture and indispensable to anyone interested in Hobbes