Lot 237
"To Lessing's Friends" - Moses Mendelssohn – First Edition – Berlin, 1786
Moses Mendelssohn, an die Freunde Lessings. Ein Anhang zu Herrn Jacobi Briefwechsel über die Lehre des Spinoza. Christian Friedrich printing press, Berlin: Voss und Sohn, 1786. First Edition. German.
"To Lessing's friends, addendum to 'On the Teachings of Spinoza, in Letters' by Mr. Jacobi [Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi]". In this book Mendelssohn protects his friend Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (who passed away five years earlier), following the accusation of the philosopher Friedrich Jacobi, who declared that Lessing was in fact a pantheist and atheist and agreed with Spinoza'a views. Mendelssohn presents his arguments against Spinoza and pantheism and declares that Lessing did not hold Spinozian views. This book, together with "Mo'adei Shachar" started the "Pantheist Polemic", a discussion between Berlin philosophers regarding the theories of Spinoza. The trouble involved with publishing this book resulted in Mendelssohn's bad cold which led to his death on January 4, 1786, at the age of 56. Three other compositions, on various topics, are bound with this book.
XXIV, 87 pp, 16 cm. Good condition. Minor spots. Original binding with leather spine.
