Is My An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Folio, London, dated 1690
• Correcting the census entry: the imprint reads 'Printed by Eliz
• Holt, for Thomas Basset' — Basset is the publisher and bookseller, Elizabeth Holt the printer — and that Holt line in the imprint is itself the first-issue point
• Two issues exist: the Holt issue, and a second whose title is a cancellans adding Edward Mory as seller, after Basset made distribution arrangements with him
• Jean Yolton (Yolton 61A) gives the Holt issue priority precisely because the Mory title-leaf is a cancel
• Further title-page details recorded for the first issue are the correctly printed 'SS' in ESSAY and thirty typographical ornaments

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

No UK-versus-US or original-language precedence question: the London folio is the only original, and it was issued in December 1689 despite the 1690 date on the title — the normal printing convention for books appearing late in the year. The edition to name alongside it is the 1694 second (London: printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, and Samuel Manship; folio), which is collected in its own right because it carries the first appearance of Book II chapter 27, 'Of Identity and Diversity' — Locke's personal-identity chapter, added at William Molyneux's suggestion — together with an almost entirely rewritten chapter on power, the renumbering of the old chapters 27 to 31 as 28 to 32, new sectional summaries in the margins, and an analytical index. A copy wanted for the identity chapter is a 1694 book, not a 1690 one.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club apparatus applies to a 1690 folio. The live confusions are the 1694 second and the later 17th- and 18th-century editions offered simply as 'Locke's Essay', and the spelling of the title itself: the first edition reads 'Humane Understanding', while modern editions and translations standardise this to 'Human Understanding' — a useful quick signal that a copy in hand is not the 1690 folio.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding a first edition?

A first edition of An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding by John Locke (Printed by Eliz. Holt for Thomas Basset, London) is identified by: Folio, London, dated 1690.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. No UK-versus-US or original-language precedence question: the London folio is the only original, and it was issued in December 1689 despite the 1690 date on the title — the normal printing convention for books appearing late in the year.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club apparatus applies to a 1690 folio. The live confusions are the 1694 second and the later 17th- and 18th-century editions offered simply as 'Locke's Essay', and the spelling of the title itself: the first edition reads 'Humane Understanding', while modern editions and translations standardise this to 'Human Understanding' — a useful quick signal that a copy in hand is not the 1690 folio.

I have a first edition of An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.