KNIGHT, Richard Payne.
An analytical inquiry into the principles of taste.
London: C. Mercier for T. Payne, 1805.
8vo (210 × 120 mm.), pp. xxi, [iii], 471, [1]. Contemporary sprinkled calf, sometime neatly rebacked to style, preserving old red morocco label, early provincial binder's ticket (Sharp, Warwick). A very good copy.
First edition of an important work in the history of aesthetics, by one of the respected arbiters of eighteenth-century taste. It is also an important work in the philosophy of sensory perception, following Hume's formulation "Beauty is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind, which contemplates them, and each mind perceives a different beauty." There are excellent discussions of Burke, Hume and Reynolds, among others. A noted collector, Knight was a member of Society of Dilettanti and devoted a great deal of study to classical Greece.
£500.00
US$993.95*
* Given as a guide only. Based on an exchange rate of £1 = US$1.987896 for the day 5 July 2008 but liable to fluctuate.
5 July 2008