A Brief Disquisition of the Law of Nature.

1692

De Beer Eb 1692 T

Printed, and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin

It is not surprising to find James Tyrrell’s abridged translation of Richard Cumberland’s De Legibus Naturae (1672), entitled A Brief Disquisition on the Law of Nature (1692), in Esmond de Beer’s Locke Collection. After all, Tyrrell (1642-1718) was a close friend of Locke’s. Hidden under the ripped preliminary leaf, there is an ‘Ex dono’ inscription that reveals that this copy was gifted to an unknown friend by Tyrrell himself. And before it was acquired by de Beer, it was owned by ‘William Leader, 27 September 1821, at Cottenham’, near Cambridge. Interestingly, this copy is one of the few that contains de Beer’s penmanship designating it a ‘Locke’ book. One can only presume that this was written before he had his ‘Locke’ labels printed.