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Bellet ( Maurice )
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Bayard 2011, broché, 258pp - très bon état
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ISBN : 9782227482937
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5 book(s) with the same title
Kapital. Kritika politicheskoj ekonomii. Perevod c nmetskago. Tom pervoej. Kniga I. Protschess proizvodstva Kapitala. (Russian, = The Capital. Critique of the Political Economy. Translated from German. Volume One. Book I [all].). - [FIRST TRANSLATION INTO ANY LANGUAGE OF ""THE BIBLE OF MARXISM""]
S.-Peterburg, N.I. Poliakov, 1872. Large 8vo. In a nice recent half calf binding with gilt lettering to spine and five raised bands. First few leaves with light soling and a closed tear and a few marginal repairs to title-page. pp. 11-18 with repairs to upper outer corner. Closed tears to last leaf, otherwise a fine copy. XIII, (3), 678 pp. (wanting the half-title).
First Russian edition (first issue, with the issue-pointers), being the first translation into any language, of Marx' immensely influential main work, probably the greatest revolutionary work of the nineteenth century.Marx' groundbreaking ""Das Kapital"" originally appeared in German in 1867, and only the first part of the work appeared in Marx' lifetime. The very first foreign translation of the work was that into Russian, which, considering Russian censorship at the time, would seem a very unlikely event. But as it happened, ""Das Kapital"" actually came to enjoy greater renown in Russia than in any other country"" for many varying reasons, it won a warm reception in many political quarters in Russia, and it enjoyed a totally unexpected rapid and widespread success. The first Russian translation of ""Das Kapital"" came to have a profound influence the economic development of of Russia. It was frequently quoted in the most important economic and political discussions on how to industrialize Russia and the essential points of the work were seen by many as the essential questions for an industrializing Russia. "" ""Das Kapital"" arrived in Russia just at the moment that the Russian economy was recovering from the slump that followed Emancipation and was beginning to assume capitalist characteristics. Industrialization raised in the minds of the intelligentsia the question of their country's economic destiny. And it was precisely this concern that drew Mikhailovsky and many of the ""intelligenty"" to ""Das Kapital""."" (Resis, p. 232).The story of how the first printing of the first translation of ""Das Kapital"" came about, is quite unexpected. As the ""triumph of Marxism in backward Russia is commonly regarded as a historical anomaly"" (Resis, p. 221), so is the triumph of the first Russian edition of ""Das Kapital"". The main credit for the coming to be of the translation of ""Das Kapital"" must be given to Nicolai Danielson, later a highly important economist in his own right. The idea came from a circle of revolutionary youths in St. Petersburg, including N.F. Danielson, G.A. Lopatin, M.F. Negreskul, and N.N. Liubavin, all four of whom participated in the project. Danielson had read the work shortly after its publication and it had made such an impact on him that he decided to make it available to the Russian reading public. He persuaded N.I. Poliakov to run the risk of publishing it. ""Poliakov, the publisher, specialized in publishing authors, Russian and foreign, considered dangerous by the authorities. Poliakov also frequently subsidized revolutionaries by commissioning them to do translations for his publishing house. Diffusion of advanced ideas rather than profit was no doubt his primary motive in publishing the book."" (Resis, p. 222). Owing to Danielson's initiative, Poliakov engaged first Bakunin, and then Lopatin to do the translation. Danielson himself finished the translation and saw the work through press. It was undeniably his leadership that brought Marx to the Russian reading public. In fact, with the first Russian edition of ""Das Kapital"", Danielson was responsible for the first public success of the revolutionizing work. ""Few scholars today would deny that ""Das Kapital"" has had an enormous effect on history in the past hundred years. Nonetheless, when the book was published in Hamburg on September 5, 1867, it made scarcely a stir, except among German revolutionaries. Marx complained that his work was greeted by ""a conspiracy of silence"" on the part of ""a pack of liberals and vulgar economists."" However desperately he contrived to provoke established economists to take up ""Das Kapital""'s challenge to their work, his efforts came to nought. But in October 1868 Marx received good news from an unexpected source. From Nikolai Frantsevich Danielson, a young economist employed by the St. Petersburg Mutual Credit Society, came a letter informing Marx that N. P. Poliakov, a publisher of that city, desired to publish a Russian translation of the first volume of ""Das Kapital""" moreover, he also wanted to publish the forthcoming second volume. Danielson, the publisher's representative, requested that Marx send him the proofs of volume 2 as they came off the press so that Poliakov could publish both volumes simultaneously. Marx replied immediately. The publication of a Russian edition of volume 1, he wrote, should not be held up, because the completion of volume 2 might be delayed by some six months [in fact, it did not appear in Marx' life-time and was only published ab. 17 years later, in 1885]" and in any case volume 1 represented an independent whole. Danielson proceeded at once to set the project in motion. Nearly four years passed, however, before a Russian translation appeared. Indeed, a year passed before the translation was even begun, and four translators tried their hand at it before Danielson was able to send the manuscript to the printers in late December 1871."" (Resis, pp. 221-22). This explains how the book came to be translated, but how did this main work of revolutionary thought escape the rigid Russian censors? ""By an odd quirk of history the first foreign translation of ""Das Kapital"" to appear was the Russian, which Petersburgers found in their bookshops early in April 1872. Giving his imprimatur, the censor, one Skuratov, had written ""few people in Russia will read it, and still fewer will understand it."" He was wrong: the edition of three thousand sold out quickly"" and in 1880 Marx was writing to his friend F.A. Sorge that ""our success is still greater in Russia, where ""Kapital"" is read and appreciated more than anywhere else."" (PMM 359, p.218). Astonishingly, Within six weeks of the publication date, nine hundred copies of the edition of three thousand had already been sold.""Under the new laws on the press, ""Das Kapital"" could have been proscribed on any number of grounds. The Temporary Rules held, for example, that censorship must not permit publication of works that ""expound the harmful doctrines of socialism or communism"" or works that ""rouse enmity and hatred of one class for another."" The Board of Censors of Foreign Publications was specifically instructed to prohibit importation of works contrary to the tenets of the Orthodox Church or works that led to atheism, materialism, or disrespect for Scriptures. Nor did the recent fate of the works of Marx and Engels at the hands of the censors offer much hope that ""Das Kapital"" would pass censorship. As recently as August 11, the censors of foreign works had decided to ban importation of Engels' ""Die Lage der arbeitenden Klassen in England"", and, according to Lopatin, the censors reprimanded Poliakov for daring to run announcements on book jackets of the forthcoming publication of ""Das Kapital"". By 1872 the censors had prohibited the importation and circulation of all works by Marx and Engels except one - ""Das Kapital"". The book, as we shall see, had already won some recognition in Russia shortly after its publication in Germany. Not until 1871, however, did the censors render a judgment on the book, when the Central Committee of Censors of Foreign Publications, on the recommendation of its reader, permitted importation and circulation of the book both in the original language and in translation. The official reader had described the book as ""a difficult, inaccessible, strictly scientific work,"" implying that it could scarcely pose a danger to the state. [...] The length and complexity of the book prompted the office to divide the task of scrutinizing it between two readers, D. Skuratov, who read the first half of the book, and A. De-Roberti, who read the last half. Skuratov dutifully listed objectionable socialist and antireligious passages, taking special note of Marx's harsh attack on the land reforms General Kiselev had instituted in the Danubian Principalities. But in his report Skuratov dismissed these attacks as harmless, since they were imbedded in a ""colossal mass of abstruse, somewhat obscure politico-economic argumentation."" Indeed, he regarded the work as its own best antidote to sedition. ""It can be confidently stated,"" he wrote, ""that in Russia few will read it and even fewer will understand it."" Second, he said, the book could do little harm. Since the book attacked a system rather than individual persons, Skuratov implied that the book would not incite acts threatening the safety of the royal family and government officials. Third, he believed that the argument of the book did not apply to Russia. Marx attacked the unbridled competition practiced in the British factory system, and such attacks, Skuratov asserted, could find no target in Russia because the tsarist regime did not pursue a policy of laissez faire. Indeed, at that very moment, Skuratov stated, a special commission had drafted a plan that ""as zealously protects the workers' well-being from abuses on the part of the employers as it protects the employers' interests against lack of discipline and nonfulfillment of obligations on the part of the workers."" Repeating most of Skuratov's views, De-Roberti also noted that the book contained a good account of the impact of the factory system and the system of unpaid labor time that prevailed in the West. In spite of the obvious socialist tendency of the book, he concluded, a court case could scarcely be made against it, because the censors of foreign works had already agreed to permit importation and circulation of the German edition. With the last barrier removed, on March 27, 1872, the Russian translation of ""Das Kapital"" went on sale in the Russian Empire. The publisher, translators, and advocates of the book had persevered in the project for nearly four years until they were finally able to bring the book to the Russian reading public."" (Resis, pp. 220-22). The Russian authorities quickly realized, however, that Skuratov's statement could not have been more wrong, and the planned second edition of the Russian translation was forbidden"" thus it came to be published in New York, in 1890. That second edition is nearly identical to the first, which can be distinguished by the misplaced comma opposite ""p. 73"" in the table of contents (replaced by a full stop in the 2nd ed.) and the ""e"" at the end of l. 40 on p. 65 (replaced by a ""c"" in the 2nd ed.). A third edition, translated from the fourth German edition, appeared in 1898. Volumes 2 and 3 of ""Das Kapital"" appeared in Russian translation, also by Danielson, in 1885 and 1896.See: Albert Resis, Das Kapital Comes to Russia, in: Slavic Review, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Jun., 1970), pp. 219-237.
Anacreontis teii antiquitissimi poëtae Lyrici Odae, ab Helia Andre Latinae factae. - [ANDRÉ'S SEMINAL LATIN TRANSLATION OF THE ANACREONTEA]
Lutetiae (i.e. Paris), Robert Stephanum (i.e. Robert Estienne) & Guillaume Morel, 1556. Small 8vo. Lovely newer full marbled paper binding with gilt leather title-label to spine (Jens E. Hansen, Aarhus). Light brownspotting to a few leaves and somne leaves towards the end with inkspotting at outer blank margin. Early neat handwritten marginal annotations throughout. A lovely copy. 54 pp.
Scarce second edition of Elie André’s seminal Latin translation of the Anacreontea – the first complete - which itself is a classic in the history of classical literature. It came to directly influence all later readings of Anacreon. In 1554, Henri Estienne II published the seminal editio princeps of Anacreon, which is no less than an outright Renaissance sensation, causing the “Anacreaonta” to become the most influential “ancient” Greek poetic text during the Renaissance, initiating a poetic revolution in Europe. Simultaneously with this editio princeps, Henri Estienne published his own Latin translation of it, which constitutes the first translation into Latin. Merely a year later, in 1555, Elie André extremely important translation of the Anacreaontea appeared, in 1555, printed by Thomas Richard. This translation included additional Odes not in the Estienne edition and was thus the first complete Latin translation of the “Anacreontia”. The following year, 1556, Robert Estienne II published his first work, namely a second edition of the original Greek Anacreontea that Henri Estienne had published in 1554. Silmultaneously, Robert Estienne republished Elie André’s Latin translation, which was published separately, but which is often found together with the 1556 second edition of the Greek Anacreontea. “The first full translation of CA was again in Latin. It was published by the humanist Elie André (1509-1587) from Bordeaux, who was friendly with the Parisian circle around the Pléiade. André’s translation appeared less than a year after Estienne’s edition and comprised the Latin translation only, without the Greek text. In a way, this can be taken as a signal that the Latin tradition was coming into its own. Accordingly, André makes some bolder choices in his translation, which already shows in his first lines (see Aiijr): Cantare nunc Atridas, Nunc expetesso Cadmum: Testudo vero nervis Solum refert Amorem (…). In classical Latin, the verb expetessere is used only by Plautus (and it is extremely rare in postclassical Latin). This brings a somewhat odd ring of comedy to the poem. Here, and in a number of other places, the translator wishes to strike his readers with an unusual turn of phrase or by some sort of amplification. He does not just imitate ‘Anacreon’, but also competes with him (as arguably with Estienne’s translation). André’s willingness to adapt the original text shows also in a certain moralistic tendency not otherwise seen in Latin translations. On the one hand, he openly and avowedly changes the text when it comes to unequivocal references to homosexuality: in CA 12 (10).8-10 (τ? µευ καλ?ν ?νε?ρων […] ?φ?ρπασας Β?θυλλον “Why from my sweet dreams […] have you snatched away Bathyllus?”), for instance, he replaces Bathyllus with a puella (Cur mane somnianti / Ista loquacitate / Mihi eripis puellam?),… in CA 29 (17).1-2 (Γρ?φε µοι Β?θυλλον ο?τω / τ?ν ?τα?ρον ?ς διδ?σκω, “Paint for me thus Bathyllus, my lover, just as I instruct you”) he simply suppresses the word ?τα?ρον, “lover” (Mihi pinge sic Bathyllum / ... Estienne’s translation is: Meos Bathyllum amores, / Ut te docebo pinge). Here, André proceeds in a way similar to the original Neo-Latin Anacreontics, in which homosexual love simply does not occur. On the other hand, André makes generous use of a metatextual element which is less conspicuous than his changes, but is even more extensive and significant. He includes a considerable number of passages in quotation marks and thus identifies them as sort of sententiae. In CA 4 (32), for instance, lines 1-6 describe how the poet wishes to lie down on myrtles, drink, and have Eros as his wine steward. This description of a specific setting is followed by some more general lines about the brevity of life, which André includes in quotation marks (lines 7- 10): “Cita nanque currit aetas, / Rota ceu voluta currus. / Sed et ossibus solutis / Iaceam cinis necesse est” (“For hurried life runs along just like a rolling wheel, but I shall soon lie, a bit of dust from crumbling bones”). The focus of this quotation technique is on lines concerned with the transitory nature of life, the uncertainness of tomorrow, and the futility of riches. By marking out such lines as sententiae, André distinguishes Anacreon the philosopher from Anacreon the drinker and lover and contributes to a larger discourse about the morality of the poet and his poems. While opinions in antiquity were often critical of Anacreon’s morals, ‘Anacreon’s’ large flock of modern imitators was united to defend their hero’s virtue. From Estienne’s preface onwards they usually referred to Plato’s Phaedrus 235c, where Socrates calls Anacreon “wise” (σοφ?ς) in matters concerned with Eros. In the 18th century, Anacreon, the philosopher, could even turn into a key-image of enligthened discourses. André’s identification of sententiae in ‘Anacreon’ prepared for this development and could have had a direct influence on it since his translation was widely read until well into the 18th century. The Latin translations of Estienne and André soon became classics in themselves and were the most successful ones in the early modern period.” (Tilg: Neo-Latin Anacreontic Poetry. Its Shape(s) and Its Significance, 214. Pp. 177-78). Brunet: I:250 Renouard: I:(161).
Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn. Neue vermehrte Auflage. - [THE FIRST EVER TRANSLATION OF BRUNO'S ""DE UNO ET CAUSA""...]
Breslau, Gottl. Löwe, 1789, 8vo. Very beautiful contemporary red full calf binding with five raised bands and gilt green leather title-label to richly gilt spine. elaborate gilt borders to boards, inside which a ""frame"" made up of gilt dots, with giltcorner-ornamentations. Edges of boards gilt and inner gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Minor light brownspotting. Marginal staining to the last leaves. Engraved frontispiece-portrait of Spinoza, engraved title-vignette (double-portrait, of Lessing and Mendelssohn), engraved end-vignette (portrait of Jacobi). Frontispiece, title-page, LI, (1, -errata), 440 pp. Magnificent copy.
First edition thus, being the seminal second edition, the ""neue vermehrte Auflage"" (new and expanded edition), which has the hugely important 180 pp. of ""Beylage"" for the first time, which include the first translation into any language of any part of Giordano Bruno's ""de Uno et Causa..."" (pp. 261-306) as well as several other pieces of great importance to the ""Pantheismusstreit"" and to the interpretation of the philosophy of Spinoza and Leibniz, here for the first time in print. The present translation of Bruno seems to be the earliest translation of any of Bruno's works into German, and one of the earliest translations of Bruno at all - as far as we can establish, the second, only preceded by an 18th century translation into English of ""Spaccio della bestia trionfante"". It is with the present edition of Jacobi's work that the interest in Bruno is founded and with which Bruno is properly introduced to the modern world. Jacobi not only provides what is supposedly the second earliest translation of any of Bruno's works ever to appear, he also establishes the great influence that Bruno had on two of our greatest thinkers, Spinoza and Leibnitz. It is now generally accepted that Spinoza founds his ethical thought upon Bruno and that Lebnitz has taken his concept of the ""Monads"" from him. It is Jacobi who, with the second edition of his ""Letters on Spinoza..."", for the first time ever puts Bruno where he belongs and establishes his position as one of the key figures of modern philosophy and thought. Bruno's works, the first editions of which are all of the utmost scarcity, were not reprinted in their time, and new editions of them did not begin appearing until the 19th century. For three centuries his works had been hidden away in libraries, where only few people had access to them. Thus, as important as his teachings were, thinkers of the ages to come were largely reliant on more or less reliable renderings and reproductions of his thoughts. As Jacobi states in the preface to the second edition of his ""Letters on Spinoza..."", ""There appears in this new edition, under the title of Appendices (""Beylage""), different essays, of which I will here first give an account. The first Appendix is an excerpt from the extremely rare book ""De la causa, principio, et Uno"", by Jordan Bruno. This strange man was born, one knows not in which year, in Nola, in the Kingdom of Naples"" and died on February 17th 1600 in Rome on the stake. With great diligence Brucker has been gathering information on him, but in spite of that has only been able to deliver fragments [not in translation]. For a long time his works were, partly neglected due to their obscurity, partly not respected due to the prejudice against the new opinions and thoughts expressed in them, and partly loathed and suppressed due to the dangerous teachings they could contain. On these grounds, the current scarcity of his works is easily understood. Brucker could only get to see the work ""De Minimo"", La Croce only had the book ""De Immenso et Innumerabilibus"" in front of him, or at least he only provides excerpts from this [also not in translation], as Heumann does only from the ""Physical Theorems"" [also small fragments, not in translation]"" also Bayle had, of Bruno's metaphysical works, himself also merely read this work, of which I here provide an excerpt."" (Vorrede, pp. (VII)-VIII - own translation from the German). Jacobi continues by stating that although everyone complains about the obscurity of Bruno's teachings and thoughts, some of the greatest thinkers, such as Gassendi, Descartes, ""and our own Leibnitz"" (p. IX) have taken important parts of their theorems and teachings from him. ""I will not discuss this further, and will merely state as to the great obscurity (""grossen Dunkelheit"") of which people accuse Bruno, that I have found this in neither his book ""de la Causa"" nor in ""De l'Infinito Universo et Mondi"", of which I will speak implicitly on another occasion. As to the first book, my readers will be able to judge for themselves from the sample (""Probe"") that I here present. My excerpt can have become a bit more comprehensible due to the fact that I have only presented the System of Bruno himself, the ""Philosophia Nolana"" which he himself calls it, in its continuity... My main purpose with this excerpt is, by uniting Bruno with Spinoza, at the same time to show and explain the ""Summa of Philosophy"" (""Summa der Philosophie"") of ""En kai Pan"" [in Greek characters - meaning ""One and All""]. ... It is very difficult to outline ""Pantheism"" in its broader sense more purely and more beautifully than Bruno has done."" (Vorrede pp. IX-XI - own translation from the German). So not only does Jacobi here provide this groundbreaking piece of Bruno's philosophy in the first translation ever, and not only does he provide one of the most important interpretations of Spinoza's philosophy and establishes the importance of Bruno to much of modern thought, he also presents Bruno as the primary exponent of ""pantheism"", thereby using Bruno to change the trajectory of modern thought and influencing all philosophy of the decades to come. After the second edition of Jacobi's ""Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza"", no self-respecting thinker could neglect the teachings of Bruno"" he could no longer be written off as having ""obscure"" and insignificant teachings, and one could no longer read Spinoza nor Leibnitz without thinking of Bruno. It is with this edition that the world rediscovers Bruno, never to forget him again.WITH THE FIRST EDITION OF ""UEBER DIE LEHRE DES SPINOZA"" (1785), JACOBI BEGINS THE FAMOUS ""PATHEISMUSSTREIT"", which focused attention on the apparent conflict between human freedom and any systematic, philosophical interpretation of reality. In 1780, Jacobi (1743-1819), famous for coining the term nihilism, advocating ""belief"" and ""revelation"" instead of speculative reason, thereby anticipating much of present-day literature, and for his critique of the Sturm-und-Drang-era, had a conversation with Lessing, in which Lessing stated that the only true philosophy was Spinozism. This led Jacobi to a protracted and serious study of Spinoza's works. After Lessing's death, in 1783 Jacobi began a lengthy letter-correspondende with Mendelssohn, a close friend of Lessing, on the philosophy of Spinoza. These letters, with commentaries by Jacobi, are what constitute the first edition of ""Ueber die lehre des Spinoza"", as well as the first part of the second edition. The second edition is of much greater importance, however, due to greatly influential Appendices. The work caused great furor and the enmity of the Enlightenment thinkers. Jacobi was ridiculed by his contemporaries for attempting to reintroduce into philosophy belief instead of reason, was seen as an enemy of reason and Enlightenment, as a pietist, and as a Jesuit. But the publication of the work not only caused great furor in wider philosophical circles, there was also a personal side to the scandal which has made it one of the most debated books of the period: ""Mendelssohn enjoyed, as noted at the outset, a lifelong friendship with G. E. Lessing... Along with Mendelssohn, Lessing embraced the idea of a purely rational religion and would endorse Mendelssohn's declaration: ""My religion recognizes no obligation to resolve doubt other than through rational means"" and it commands no mere faith in eternal truths"" (Gesammelte Schriften, Volume 3/2, p. 205). To pietists of the day, such declarations were scandalous subterfuges of an Enlightenment project of assimilating religion to natural reason... While Mendelssohn skillfully avoided that confrontation, he found himself reluctantly unable to remain silent when, after Lessing's death, F. H. Jacobi contended that Lessing embraced Spinoza's pantheism and thus exemplified the Enlightenment's supposedly inevitable descent into irreligion.Following private correspondence with Jacobi on the issue and an extended period when Jacobi (in personal straits at the time) did not respond to his objections, Mendelssohn attempted to set the record straight about Lessing's Spinozism in ""Morning Hours"". Learning of Mendelssohn's plans incensed Jacobi who expected to be consulted first and who accordingly responded by publishing, without Mendelssohn's consent, their correspondence - ""On the Teaching of Spinoza in Letters to Mr. Moses Mendelssohn"" - a month before the publication of ""Morning Hours"". Distressed on personal as well as intellectual levels by the controversy over his departed friend's pantheism, Mendelssohn countered with a hastily composed piece, ""To the Friends of Lessing: an Appendix to Mr. Jacobi's Correspondence on the Teaching of Spinoza"". According to legend, so anxious was Mendelssohn to get the manuscript to the publisher that, forgetting his overcoat on a bitterly cold New Year's eve, he delivered the manuscript on foot to the publisher. That night he came down with a cold from which he died four days later, prompting his friends to charge Jacobi with responsibility for Mendelssohn's death.The sensationalist character of the controversy should not obscure the substance and importance of Mendelssohn's debate with Jacobi. Jacobi had contended that Spinozism is the only consistent position for a metaphysics based upon reason alone and that the only solution to this metaphysics so detrimental to religion and morality is a leap of faith, that salto mortale that poor Lessing famously refused to make. Mendelssohn counters Jacobi's first contention by attempting to demonstrate the metaphysical inconsistency of Spinozism. He takes aim at Jacobi's second contention by demonstrating how the ""purified Spinozism"" or ""refined pantheism"" embraced by Lessing is, in the end, only nominally different from theism and thus a threat neither to religion nor to morality."" (SEP).The Beylagen, which are not included in the 1785 first edition and only appear with the 1789 second edition, include: I. Auszug aus Jordan Bruno von Nola. Von der Ursache, dem Princip und dem Einen (p. 261-306) II. Diokles an Diotime über den Atheismus (p. 307-327) translation of Lettre ... sur l'Athéisme by F. Hemsterhuis.
Den Danske Krønicke som Saxo Grammaticus screff, hallfierde hundrede Aar forleden: Nu først aff Latinen udsæt, flittelige offuerseet oc forbedret, Aff Anders Søffrinssøn Vedel. - [FIRST DANISH TRANSLATION OF THE NARRATIVE OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK]
Kiøbenhaffn, Hans Støckelman oc Andreas Gutterwitz, 1575. Folio. Bound in a very nice mid 19th century brown half calf with five raised bands and gilt ornamentations to spine. Title-page printed in red and black and with large woodcut, verso with full-page woodcut portrait of King Frederik II. Small repaired cut-out to top of title-page and an old owner's annotation. Neat marginal annotations to some leaves and early annotations to back fly-leaf. Occasional light brownspotting, but overall an unusually well kept and fresh copy, printed on good paper. (36), 547, (33) pp.
The very rare first translation into any language, being the seminal first Danish translation, of the first preserved full history of Denmark - to this day the most important of all Danish historical publications and a main work of European Medieval literature. This magnificent work furthermore contains the first known written narrative of the legend of Hamlet and served as the basis for Shakespeare's play. """"Hamlet"" is based on a Norse legend composed by Saxo Grammaticus in Latin around 1200 AD. The sixteen books that comprise Saxo Grammaticus' ""Gesta Danorum"", or ""History of the Danes"", tell of the rise and fall of the great rulers of Denmark, and the tale of Amleth, Saxo's Hamlet, is recounted in books three and four. In Saxo's version, King Rorik of the Danes places his trust in two brothers, Orvendil and Fengi. The brothers are appointed to rule over Jutland, and Orvendil weds the king's beautiful daughter, Geruth. They have a son, Amleth. But Fengi, lusting after Orvendil's new bride and longing to become the sole ruler of Jutland, kills his brother, marries Geruth, and declares himself king over the land. Amleth is desperately afraid, and feigns madness to keep from getting murdered. He plans revenge against his uncle and becomes the new and rightful king of Jutland."" (""Shakespeare's Sources for ""Hamlet"" "" - Shakespeare-on-line). The patriotic ""Danish Chronicle"" (i.e. Gesta Danorum) by Saxo Grammaticus is without comparison the most ambitious literary production of medieval Denmark and the most important source for the early history of the nation, also being one of the oldest known written documents about the history of Estonia and Latvia. Its sixteen books describe the history of Denmark and the Danes as well as Scandinavian history in general, from prehistory until Saxo's own time (12th century). It offers crucial reflections on European affairs of the High Middle Ages, from a unique Scandinavian perspective, and constitutes a significant supplement to other Western and Southern European sources. Saxo Grammaticus (ab. 1150-1220) was probably a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the great Danish churchman, statesman and warrior. Saxo is remembered today as the author of the first full history of Denmark, in which he modelled himself upon the classical authors (e.g. Virgil, Plato, Cicero) in order to glorify his fatherland. The work dates from the end of the 12th century and was first printed, in Latin, in Paris in 1514 with 16th century re-issues following in 1534 (Basel) and 1576 (Frankfurt). In 1575, the very first translation of the work appeared, that into Danish, which came to play a significant role in the history of both the legends presented in the work and in Danish language and culture. This groundbreaking first printed translation of Saxo's chronicle was prepared by the Danish historian and philologist Anders Sørensen Vedel (1542-1616). Vedel was also the tutor of Tycho Brahe and his companion on Brahe's grand tour of Europe, where the two formed a lasting bond of friendship. Previous attempts had been made at translating Saxo's magnificent work (one by Christiern Pedersen, one by Jon Tursen), but none of them were printed and the manuscripts have also not survived"" Vedel's translation is the only one that was finished and made it to print. Prompted by Absalon, Vedel began his translation in 1570, and it took him five years to finish the task of both translating and rewriting the original Latin text. While working on this grandiose production, he was given the income of a canon at Ribe Cathedral. Vedel's translation is one of tone of the most important Renaissance contributions to Danish literature and to the development of the Danish language. Vedel's work is not merely a translation, but a magnificent rewriting that should be considered a literary masterpiece in its own right. After Vedel's translation, Saxo remained the indispensable classic that overshadowed all other historical works, both as a source to the earliest history of Denmark and the Danes and as a source of the Nordic myths. Vedel's seminal translation predates the first English translation by more than 300 years and remained the only vernacular version of the text for centuries. The work consists of sixteen books that cover the time from the founders of the Danish people (Dan I of Denmark) till Saxo's own time, ending around 1185 (with the submission of Pomerania), when the last part is supposedly written. The work thus covers the entire history of Denmark until Saxo's own time, seen under a somewhat glorified perspective, from heathen times with tales of Odin and the gods of Valhalla to the times of Absalon, who probably directly influenced the sections on the history of his own time, working closely with Saxo himself. The work also contains the first known written narrative of the legend of Hamlet (Amleth, the son who took revenge for his murdered father). It is this narrative of Saxo's, which he based on an oral tale, that forms the basis for Shakespeare's ""Hamlet"", which takes place in Helsinore in Denmark. There is fairly certain evidence that Shakespeare knew Saxo's work on the History of Denmark and thus the legend of Amleth. ""This is the old, Norse folk-tale of Amleth, a literary ancestor of Shakespeare's ""Hamlet"". The Scandinavian legend was recorded in Latin around 1200 by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus and first printed in Paris in this beautiful 1514 edition. It is part of the collection of tales known as Gesta Danorum - a partly mythical history of the Danes. Saxo's Amleth story - a summaryKing Rørik of Denmark appoints two brothers, Horwendil and Fengo, as the rulers of Jutland. Horwendil slays the King of Norway, marries King Rørik's daughter Gerutha, and they have a son named Amleth. Consumed by envy of his brother, Fengo murders Horwendil and marries his wife Gerutha. Amleth then feigns madness, clothing himself in rags and spouting nonsense, to shield himself from his uncle's violence. In fact, the name 'Amleth' itself means 'stupid'.Yet Amleth's behaviour attracts suspicion, and the King attempts to trap him into admitting he has plans for revenge. First, a beautiful woman is used to lure him into betraying himself, but she proves loyal to Amleth. Then a spy is planted to eavesdrop on Amleth's conversation with his mother, in which she repents and he confesses his plans for revenge. Amleth detects the spy, kills him in a mad frenzy, throws his mutilated body in a sewer, and leaves it to be eaten by pigs. Fengo then deports Amleth to England with two escorts carrying a letter directing the King there to execute him. Amleth switches the letter with another one, which orders the death of the escorts and asks for the hand of the English Princess in marriage.Returning to Denmark, Amleth arrives disguised, in the midst of his own funeral, burns down the hall and hunts down his sleeping uncle. Because Amleth had wounded himself on his sword, attendants had made it harmless by nailing it to the scabbard (the sheath used to hold it). Amleth swaps this useless sword with Fengo's, succeeds in killing his uncle and next day is hailed as the King....Saxo's account has many of the defining features of Shakespeare's drama: a villain who kills his brother, takes over the throne and then marries his brother's wifea cunning young hero, the King's son, who pretends to be mad to shield himself from his unclethree plots used by the King to uncover the young man's secrets: a young woman, a spy planted in the Queen's bedroom (who is uncovered and killed), and two escorts who take the prince to England (also outwitted and killed)a hero who returns home during a funeral and finally achieves his revenge through an exchange of swords. There are equivalents for Shakespeare's central characters - old and young Hamlet, old and young Fortinbras, Claudius and Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. But Saxo has no ghost demanding vengeance, and the identity of the murderous uncle is known from the start. There is no Osric, no gravediggers or play within a play. The legend lacks a Laertes character and the young woman does not go mad or kill herself. Perhaps most crucially, Amleth lacks Hamlet's melancholy disposition and long self-reflexive soliloquies, and he survives after becoming king."" (""Saxo's legend of Amleth in the Gesta Danorum"" - The British Library.mht). ""Saxo Grammaticus, (flourished 12th century-early 13th century), historian whose Gesta Danorum (""Story of the Danes"") is the first important work on the history of Denmark and the first Danish contribution to world literature.Little is known of Saxo's life except that he was a Zealander belonging to a family of warriors and was probably a clerk in the service of Absalon, archbishop of Lund from 1178 to 1201. Saxo is first mentioned in Svend Aggesen's Historia Regum Danicae compendiosa (1185"" ""Short History of the Danish Kings"") as writing the history of Svend Estridsen (d. 1076).The Gesta Danorum was written at the suggestion of Archbishop Absalon: its 16 volumes begin with the legendary King Dan and end with the conquest of Pomerania by Canute IV in 1185. The work is written in a brilliant, ornate Latin. It was his Latin eloquence that early in the 14th century caused Saxo to be called ""Grammaticus."" The first nine books of the Gesta Danorum give an account of about 60 legendary Danish kings. For this part Saxo depended on ancient lays, romantic sagas, and the accounts of Icelanders. His legend of Amleth is thought to be the source of William Shakespeare's Hamlet" his Toke, the archer, the prototype of William Tell. Saxo incorporated also myths of national gods whom tradition claimed as Danish kings, as well as myths of foreign heroes. Three heroic poems are especially noteworthy, translated by Saxo into Latin hexameters. These oldest-known Danish poems are Bjarkemaalet, a battle hymn designed to arouse warlike feelings Ingjaldskvadet, a poem stressing the corruptive danger of luxury upon the old Viking spirit" and Hagbard and Signe, a tragedy of love and family feuds. The last seven books contain Saxo's account of the historical period, but he achieves independent authority only when writing of events close to his own time. His work is noteworthy for its sense of patriotic purpose based on a belief in the unifying influence of the monarchy. By presenting a 2,000-year-long panorama of Danish history, he aimed to show his country's antiquity and traditions. Saxo's work became a source of inspiration to many of the 19th-century Danish Romantic poets."" (Encycl. Britt.) Laur.Nielsen 240. - Thesaurus 190.
"MARX, KARL [Translated by:] P. RUMYANTSEV [Edited by:] A.MANUILOV.
Reference : 59587
(1896)
Kritika nekotorykh polozhenii politicheskoi ekonomii. (i.e.: ""Zur Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie"", i.e.: ""A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy""). - [FIRST RUSSIAN TRANSLATION OF THE BLUEPRINT FOR ""DAS KAPITAL"" ]
Moscow, Izdanie Vladimira Bonch-Bruevicha, 1896. 8vo. In a later modest black half calf binding with marbled boards. Traces of stamp to verso of front and back board. Title-page slightly rubbed. Occassional underlignings in text and margins. Pp. 145-146 reinforced in margin. Otherwise a fine copy. XII, (4), (1)-160 pp.
Exceedingly rare first Russian translation of this groundbreaking work, in which Marx first presents his revolutionizing theories of capitalism. For years, the present work was largely overshadowed by ‘Das Kapital’, and despite being published 8 years earlier (The original being published in 1859, ‘Das Kapital’ in 1867), the present work was not translated, until ‘Das Kapital’ had made Marx a household name in socialist and revolutionary circles, making the present translation comparatively early (the first English translation being from 1904).The Russian censorship cut Marx’ preface in this first translation - the full text did not appear until the revolutionary decade of 1905-1917. This Manuilov/Rumiantsev-translation remained the canonic-translation throughout the Soviet rule. The translation was made by Bolshevik revolutionary Petr Rumiantsev (1870-1924), who left the party in 1907 and emigrated in 1918, but the success of the present translation is primarily due to editor Manuilov. Editor Alexander Appolonovich Manuilov (1861-1929) was a Russian economist and politician, famous not only as one of the founding members of the Constitutional Democratic party (known as the Kadets), but also as the Russian translator of the present work. ""Manuilov graduated from the law department of the University of Novorossiia (Odessa, 1883). He began scholarly and pedagogical work in political economy in 1888. In 1901 he became head of a subdepartment at Moscow University, becoming assistant rector in 1905 and serving as rector from 1908 to 1911. He was dismissed by the tsarist government for attacking the ""extremes"" of Stolypin's agrarian legislation. In the 1890's he was a liberal Narodnik (Populist), later becoming a Constitutional Democrat (Cadet) and a member of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party. Manuilov's draft on agrarian reform (1905) was the basis for the Cadets' agrarian program. V. I. Lenin sharply criticized Manuilov, calling him one of ""the bourgeois liberal friends of the muzhik who desire the 'extension of peasant land ownership' but do not wish to offend the landlords"" (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 11, p. 126, note).""At the beginning of his scholarly career Manuilov accepted the labor theory of value. In 1896 he translated K. Marx' work A Contribution to the Criticism of Political Economy (Zur Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie). During the years of reaction he espoused subjectivist and psychological views in political economy. In 1917 he was minister of education of the Provisional Government. After the October Revolution in 1917 he emigrated but soon returned and cooperated with Soviet power. He participated in the orthographic reform (1918). In 1924 he became a member of the board of Gosbank (State Bank). He taught in higher educational institutions. Changing to Marxist positions and relying on Lenin's works, he criticized the revisionists and neo-Narodniks on the agrarian question."" (Encycl. Britt.). For many years, the exclusive focus on ""Das Kapital"" meant that the ""Kritik"" was overlooked. Since the beginning of the 1960's, however, scholars have become increasingly aware of its importance as the blueprint for the social and economic theory Marx shall go on to develop (see for example Raymond Aron, ""Le Marxisme de Marx"", 1962). It is here that Marx outlines the research programme to which he shall devote the rest of his working life. He himself described ""Das Kapital"" as a continuation of his ""Zur Kritik der politischen Oekonomie"" (see e.g. PMM 359), in which his primary concern is an examination of capital and in which he provides the theoretical foundation for his political conclusions later presented in ""Das Kapital"". ""I examine the system of bourgeois economy in the following order: capital, landed property, wage-labour" the State, foreign trade, world market. The economic conditions of existence of the three great classes into which modern bourgeois society is divided are analysed under the first three headings the interconnection of the other three headings is self-evident. The first part of the first book, dealing with Capital, comprises the following chapters: 1. The commodity, 2. Money or simple circulation" 3. Capital in general. The present part consists of the first two chapters."" (Preface to the present work, in the translation (by S.W. Ryazanskaya) of the Progress Publishers-edition, Moscow, 1977). Apart from the obvious importance of the work as the foundational precursor to what is probably the greatest revolutionary work of the nineteenth century, the ""Kritik"" is of the utmost importance in the history of political and economic thought, as it is here, in the preface, that Marx outlines his classic formulation of historical materialism. This preface contains the first connected account of what constitutes one of Marx's most important and influential theories, namely the economic interpretation of history - the idea that economic factors condition the politics and ideologies that are possible in a society. ""The first work which I undertook to dispel the doubts assailing me was a critical re-examination of the Hegelian philosophy of law"" the introduction to this work being published in the Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher issued in Paris in 1844. My inquiry led me to the conclusion that neither legal relations nor political forms could be comprehended whether by themselves or on the basis of a so-called general development of the human mind, but that on the contrary they originate in the material conditions of life, the totality of which Hegel, following the example of English and French thinkers of the eighteenth century, embraces within the term ""civil society"""" that the anatomy of this civil society, however, has to be sought in political economy. The study of this, which I began in Paris, I continued in Brussels, where I moved owing to an expulsion order issued by M. Guizot. The general conclusion at which I arrived and which, once reached, became the guiding principle of my studies can be summarised as follows. In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or - this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms - with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure."" (Preface to the present work, in the translation (by S.W. Ryazanskaya) of the Progress Publishers-edition, Moscow, 1977). OCLC lists merely three copies, all in the US (Havard, Wisconsin, and Hoover Institute on War).
