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Johann Gottfried von Herder, Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind. Vol. II [1838]
Title: Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind. Volume Two.
Author: Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803) [German philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic; a pioneer of modern philosophy of history]
Translator: Józef Władysław Bychowiec (1778–1845) [philosopher and translator, popularizer of Kant’s philosophy in Poland]. Translated from German with a preface and a biographical sketch of the author by Józef Bychowicz Kapitan (as stated on the title page).
Publisher: Vilnius, Published and Printed by T. Glucksberg, Bookseller and Typographer of the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy and the Schools of the Belarusian Scientific Faculty.
Year of publication: 1838.
Format: 22 cm.
Volume: 335 pp., [3].
Binding: paper publisher’s binding.
The Vilnius edition of “Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind” presents Polish readers with one of the works that shaped modern thinking about history. The German original, *Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit*, was published between 1784 and 1791, and in it Herder sought to demonstrate that nature and human history are subject to a unified system of laws. In the history of the philosophy of history, this book is placed alongside the writings of Giambattista Vico as a foundation of the new science of history, which calls for evaluating human actions with regard to time, place, and national character. The Polish translation was published in volumes by Teofil Glücksberg’s press in Vilnius during the inter-uprising period in the annexed territories. The Kórnik Library catalog lists, under the year 1837, an eight-page printed work with the same title, published in Vilnius by Glücksberg, which was likely a preliminary announcement preceding the main edition.
Johann Gottfried von Herder was born in the Prussian town of Mohrungen—today’s Morąg—and combined the roles of philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic in a single life. His work spans three intellectual movements of the era: the Enlightenment, the Sturm und Drang movement, and Weimar Classicism. He is regarded as the founder or precursor of several disciplines—hermeneutics, linguistics, anthropology, and secular philosophy of history.
The translator, Józef Władysław Bychowiec, was himself a philosopher. He produced three translations of Kant’s writings, and his “A Word on Philosophy” was a competition essay submitted during the search for a professor of philosophy at the Royal University of Warsaw. Krystian Teofil Glücksberg (1796–1876) ran a printing house and bookstore in Vilnius; in 1846, he opened a branch in Kyiv and published, among other works, the early writings of Adam Mickiewicz; In 1859, he sold the Vilnius printing house to Adam Honoré Kirkor.
The provenance of this piece remains unknown—the volume lacks any old institutional stamps and has no pencil underlines.
A valuable item for researchers of the history of European philosophy and Romantic thought, as well as for collectors of Vilnius-related materials and early Vilnius typography.
The original paper paperback cover is in generally good condition with some flaws: surface soiling and dust, mechanical wear, and deeper paper losses in the area of the flexible spine. The text block is largely intact and complete in its folio arrangement, with a tear at the level of page nine, which deviates from the stitching axis—this piece requires conservative bookbinding intervention. The interior is in good condition; the paper has a natural patina of age: scattered foxing, acid-induced yellowing, and minor soiling along the margins.
Catalog ID: 13317x2-22-A-X
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
Title: Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind. Volume Two.
Author: Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803) [German philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic; a pioneer of modern philosophy of history]
Translator: Józef Władysław Bychowiec (1778–1845) [philosopher and translator, popularizer of Kant’s philosophy in Poland]. Translated from German with a preface and a biographical sketch of the author by Józef Bychowicz Kapitan (as stated on the title page).
Publisher: Vilnius, Published and Printed by T. Glucksberg, Bookseller and Typographer of the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy and the Schools of the Belarusian Scientific Faculty.
Year of publication: 1838.
Format: 22 cm.
Volume: 335 pp., [3].
Binding: paper publisher’s binding.
The Vilnius edition of “Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind” presents Polish readers with one of the works that shaped modern thinking about history. The German original, *Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit*, was published between 1784 and 1791, and in it Herder sought to demonstrate that nature and human history are subject to a unified system of laws. In the history of the philosophy of history, this book is placed alongside the writings of Giambattista Vico as a foundation of the new science of history, which calls for evaluating human actions with regard to time, place, and national character. The Polish translation was published in volumes by Teofil Glücksberg’s press in Vilnius during the inter-uprising period in the annexed territories. The Kórnik Library catalog lists, under the year 1837, an eight-page printed work with the same title, published in Vilnius by Glücksberg, which was likely a preliminary announcement preceding the main edition.
Johann Gottfried von Herder was born in the Prussian town of Mohrungen—today’s Morąg—and combined the roles of philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic in a single life. His work spans three intellectual movements of the era: the Enlightenment, the Sturm und Drang movement, and Weimar Classicism. He is regarded as the founder or precursor of several disciplines—hermeneutics, linguistics, anthropology, and secular philosophy of history.
The translator, Józef Władysław Bychowiec, was himself a philosopher. He produced three translations of Kant’s writings, and his “A Word on Philosophy” was a competition essay submitted during the search for a professor of philosophy at the Royal University of Warsaw. Krystian Teofil Glücksberg (1796–1876) ran a printing house and bookstore in Vilnius; in 1846, he opened a branch in Kyiv and published, among other works, the early writings of Adam Mickiewicz; In 1859, he sold the Vilnius printing house to Adam Honoré Kirkor.
The provenance of this piece remains unknown—the volume lacks any old institutional stamps and has no pencil underlines.
A valuable item for researchers of the history of European philosophy and Romantic thought, as well as for collectors of Vilnius-related materials and early Vilnius typography.
The original paper paperback cover is in generally good condition with some flaws: surface soiling and dust, mechanical wear, and deeper paper losses in the area of the flexible spine. The text block is largely intact and complete in its folio arrangement, with a tear at the level of page nine, which deviates from the stitching axis—this piece requires conservative bookbinding intervention. The interior is in good condition; the paper has a natural patina of age: scattered foxing, acid-induced yellowing, and minor soiling along the margins.
Catalog ID: 13317x2-22-A-X
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
