After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642, Hobbes set aside work on the Elements of Philosophy as such, and conceived instead a single-volume work, which would start with a very brief summary of his metaphysics (in effect, On Body without the scientific material); then continue with a fuller summary of On the Human Being; and the bulk of the work would be an expanded version of On the Citizen. It was published, in English, in 1651, with the rather contentious title Leviathan.

Hobbes then went on to complete the Elements of Philosophy, with On Body in 1655, and On the Human Being in 1658. In the meantime, Leviathan had caused a stir in England (though not abroad, since nobody could read it). Hobbes had made many enemies, especially among Catholics, Presbyterians, academics, and parliamentarians. He was often accused of being an atheist, and in 1666 he narrowly escaped being accused of heresy by a committee of the House of Commons. In order to destroy potential evidence, he burned many of his papers (presumably including documents which would have revealed his beliefs about the nature of God). Nevertheless, Leviathan was banned, and he could not publish any amended editions in England.

The only alternative was to publish a revised edition on the Continent, in Latin. His original idea had been to get his friend Henry Stubbe to translate it for him. He finished the first nine chapters in 1656, but then abandoned the project. However, Hobbes needed to revise the text, since it contained some errors, and some of the material was too parochial for an international readership. So he decided to do it himself. This was no easy project, since he had a muscular disorder which prevented him from writing legibly, and his only assistant was a young lad who wrote from dictation, but knew no Latin. This may explain some of the infelicities in the text.

A fascinating question is that of how much translating he actually had to do. We know from his verse autobiography that he started Leviathan in Latin, ‘And finished it in my own Mother-Tongue, To be read for the benefit of old and young.’ There is clear internal evidence that Hobbes still had a Latin text for part of the work; but we don’t know how much. And when the two versions differ in meaning, it is not necessarily the case that the Latin version represents Hobbes’s later view, since he could have reverted to the pre-1651 Latin. My general feeling is that he was working from the original Latin a large proportion of the time, and that the published Latin text omits many additions made specifically for the English version. However, not all scholars would agree.

However, some chapters were substantially rewritten, especially towards the end. In particular the final chapter of the English version (‘A Review and Conclusion’), was entirely replaced by a new Appendix, consisting of three chapters written in dialogue form. It is basically Hobbes’s self-defence against the charge of heresy. Oddly, on some points he went further than he had dared go publicly before — for example, his clear assertion of the materiality of God. Perhaps he felt that, at the age of 80, he had little to fear from persecution.

There are innumerable editions of the English Leviathan. Probably the most authoritative is the one edited by Richard Tuck (Cambridge, 1991).

A good, cheap edition is the Penguin one, edited by C.B. Macpherson (1968). It is faithful to Hobbes’s spelling, punctuation, and typography; but the Introduction is rather contentious.

The first person to think of including the variations in the Latin version was François Tricaud, Léviathan (Paris, Sirey, 1971) — but this is in French.

The only English edition to include the Latin variants (in English translation) is that of Edwin Curley (Hackett, 1994). Curley modernises Hobbes’s spelling, and changes the punctuation quite drastically.

However, Curley was not the first to translate the Latin appendix into English. The honour goes to George Wright, in Interpretation 18 (1991) 323–413.

As for as I am aware, the only modern edition of the Latin Leviathan is that by Molesworth (LW III). It is this edition which I have used for my translation, and the numbers in square brackets refer to its pages.

However, there are two problems. First, Molesworth takes liberties with the text, without telling the reader he has done so (e.g. correcting Hobbes’s Biblical quotations). Second, Molesworth based his edition on the first, 1668 edition. However, subsequent scholarship has shown that the second edition of 1670 included corrections made by Hobbes himself, and is therefore to be preferred. This is the edition used by Curley. Curley has it in digital form, and intends to publish it on CDRom, but has not yet done so. In due course I shall amend my translation where Molesworth’s text differs from that of the 1670 edition.

Go to the Index to Leviathan