A Series of Lectures upon Locke's Essay [Concerning Human Understanding].

First edition of what appears to have been Dionysius Lardner's first published book, and an unusually interesting contemporary student's working copy. Published in Dublin in 1824, Lardner's lectures arose after he discovered that an unauthorised abridgement of Locke was being sold to students under his name. Rather than encourage learning by rote, Lardner wanted students to examine Locke critically and "judge and reason" for themselves. This copy appears to have been specially bound for precisely that purpose, with substantial gatherings of writing paper inserted amongst and after the printed text. An anonymous early reader filled many of these leaves with extensive philosophical notes and abstracts, while also answering Lardner's printed questions. Particularly revealing are manuscript study schedules allocating hours to a Tutor, Locke, Bacon, Butler, Cicero, Logic and other subjects, strongly suggesting contemporary academic use, apparently in the Trinity College Dublin environment. A fascinating survival in which the physical copy records the use for which Lardner intended his book: not simply the reading of Locke, but active study, questioning and preparation for examination. With the Dublin bookseller's ticket of E. Madden, 7 Grafton Street. =================================================================== Binding : Contemporary or near-contemporary half calf over marbled boards, with calf corners; spine with raised bands, gilt rules and blind-stamped decoration, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece lettered in gilt "LARDNER'S LOCKE". Binding rubbed and worn at extremities, with some wear and loss at spine ends, but remaining sound and attractive. The construction of the volume, incorporating substantial gatherings of writing paper, appears deliberately designed to facilitate its use as a working study copy. Collation and condition : Title-page; Preface, pp. i-iii; preliminary Lecture List, beginning part-way through Lecture III and continuing to Lecture VII, pp. iii-viii, with manuscript annotations; main printed text pp. 1-164; concluding Lecture List, Lectures XX-XXVII, pp. xvii-xx. Printed pp. 81-82 are absent. Pages 83-86 are damaged at the inner margin and laid down onto old paper guards. Pages 127-128 are torn with loss at the upper outer corner. Specially bound with substantial gatherings of blank writing paper: following p.112 are 4 pages of manuscript notes and 8 blank pages; following p.128, 14 manuscript pages and 6 blanks; following the printed text, 16 manuscript pages, approximately 127 blank pages, and 3 manuscript pages containing the study timetable. Numerous further contemporary manuscript annotations and answers occur throughout the printed text. Despite the textual defects noted above, the copy's extensive contemporary manuscript material is an integral and particularly interesting feature of the volume. =================================================================== LARDNER, Rev. Dionysius. A Series of Lectures upon Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Dublin: Printed by R. Graisberry. Published by Hodges and McArthur, 21, College-Green, 1824. First edition. An important early work by the Irish scientist, writer and educationalist Dionysius Lardner (1793-1859), apparently his first published book. Lardner was then associated with Trinity College Dublin and was subsequently to become one of the nineteenth century's best-known popularisers of science and general knowledge, most notably as editor of the extensive Cabinet Cyclopaedia. Lardner's preface gives an unusually revealing account of the book's origins. He explains that Dublin publishers had repeatedly approached him to prepare a condensed version of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, proposals which he had declined despite offers of payment. He was finally prompted to write after discovering that a spurious contraction of Locke in catechetical form was circulating under his name, being sold by booksellers and pu. …