# Is "An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding" by John Locke a First Edition?

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

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- 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
- Publisher imprint reads Printed by Eliz. Holt for Thomas Basset, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John Locke |
| Publisher | Printed by Eliz. Holt for Thomas Basset, London |
| Year | 1690 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Folio, London, dated 1690 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## 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. The preliminaries run through the Epistle Dedicatory and the Epistle to the Reader and end with an errata; the text is pages 1 to 362, with Contents at pages 363 to 384, and blank leaves at front and back. An important negative point, because these are widely misquoted as issue tells: the misnumbered pages (85 as 83, 287 as 269, 296 as 294, 303 as 230; in some copies 76 as 50 and 77 as 55) occur, per Yolton, in many copies of both issues indiscriminately, and so are not issue points. The same applies to the misprint 'Underwandings' on page 55, the incorrect chapter roman numerals on pages 57 and 263, and the missing paragraph marker at section 24 on page 90. Peter Nidditch estimated about 900 copies, chiefly of the Holt issue, though possibly as few as 500. References: Yolton 61A; PMM 164; Norman 1380; Wing L2738; Pforzheimer 599. Caveat: both ABAA dealers consulted follow Yolton in giving the Holt issue priority, but one dealer description notes that scholarship is not unanimous on strict priority between the two issues.

## 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.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding* by John Locke a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/an-essay-concerning-humane-understanding
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.