08/09/2026
It's not often you can trace exactly where and when a book was read. With our first edition copy of Hobbes' Leviathan, we can tell you that its first owner read it at least twice: first finishing the volume in August 1651 in Amsterdam and a second time in January 1659 in London, as they recorded the fact inside the book.
It seems that the reread was in efforts to avoid an acquaintance; they record: "I confind my Selfe to my House to avoid the Practises of that treacherous Snake Mercer." Perhaps describing Mercer as a primordial sea monster, in a copy of Leviathan, would have been too on the nose - but we think the previous owner missed a trick here!
The handwritten note, in full, reads:
"I red this Booke through ending August 17 - 1651 new Style at Amsterdam in Holland, in the Holy-way-street. I finished the second Reading of this Booke Janurie 22. Anno 1658/9 in White-Cross-Street in London, what time I confind my Selfe to my House to avoid the Practises of that treacherous Snake Mercer whom I had long Hugd as a Serpent in my Bosome, to my incredible Dammage & Vexation in the end…"
