Scepsis Scientifica: or Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; In An Essay of the Vanity of Dogmatizing, and Confident Opinion. With A Reply to the Exceptions of the Learned Thomas Albius

Glanvill, Joseph

Published by Printed by E. Cotes, for Henry Eversden at the Gray-Hound in St. Paul s Church-Yard (London), 1665

About this Item

A CRITICAL HISTORIC DEFENSE OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD. First (only) Edition, 17 leaves (including imprimateur and errata leaves with the fine engraved arms of the Royal Society; lacking the longitudinal half-title preceding the title page), 184 pp. Bound with Scirei tuum nihil est: Or, The Author s Defence of the Vanity of Dogmatizing; Against the Exceptions of The Learned Tho. Albius In his Late Sciri. No doubt but ye are the Men, and Wisdom shall dye with you! Job (London: Printed by E.C. for Henry Eversden at the Gray-Hound in St. Paul s Church-Yard, 1665). First (only) Edition: 8 leaves (including title page), 92 pp., 2 blank leaves. Two small 4to works usually bound as one. Modern blue cloth, new endpapers; 1st title w/some marginal discolorations and small tears along edges, otherwise very clean, good copy. First 3 leaves together are loose. Provenance: Fascinating contemporary inscriptions in the Sciri, especially on the first blank leaf. There appear to be contemporary signatures of a Simon Crosby, Nicolas Crosby, and mention of a Charles Lowe but these specific people have not been identified. This copy was previously owned by Arthur C. Greenberg, a great American collector of the history of chemistry. Thomas Albius is, of course, the Catholic philosopher, scientist and controversialist (1592/3-1673), friend of Sir Kenelm Digby annd opponent of both Glanvill and Hobbes. Glanvill's Vanity of dogmatizing of 1661 had elicited from White his Sciri, sive, Sceptices et scepticorum a jure disputationis exclusio (1663) published in English as An Exclusion of Sceptics from All Title to Dispute (1665). Part two of this work (Scire/i tuum nihil est) is Glanvill's rebuttal of White, and is in part a reworking of his Vanity (the work in which we find the story of The Scholar Gypsy, which is evoked in Matthew Arnold's lines "And near me on the grass, lies Glanvill's book"). Very scarce (as many copies lost in the great London fire in 1665) although RBH lists 45 sales of this title at auction over the last century. Almost all lack the longitudinal half-title preceding the title page. References: Wing G-827; ESTC R13862; Wellcome III, p. 120; Neville I, p 527 lists the two works separately.

Seller Inventory # EBS100285

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Scepsis Scientifica: or Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; In An Essay of the Vanity of Dogmatizing, and Confident Opinion. With A Reply to the Exceptions of the Learned Thomas Albius
• Publisher: Printed by E. Cotes, for Henry Eversden at the Gray-Hound in St. Paul s Church-Yard (London)
• Publication Date: 1665
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Chemistry
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Science