The History of Philosophy,: from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Present Century; drawn up from Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophiae by William Enfield. In Two Volumes. Vol.I [II]

PRINCIPAL AUTHORITY FOR KANT & THE ENCYCLOPAEDISTS -'IMMENSELY LEARNED AND DETAILED'
first edition of the first English version 2 vols. large 4to. xxviii, 503, [1 (blank)], [60 (index)]; [4], 628pp., large folding engraved plate (a biographical time chart) in vol. I, contemporary diced russia, gilt fillet and roll pattern on front cover, spines with gilt highlighted raised bands and gilt tools at panel centres, direct lettered gilt, some scattered gatherings lightly browned as usual, spines little rubbed and some cracking of joints, but generally a very good and attractive copy.
Partially erased engraved armorial bookplates of the Broadhurst family on the front endpapers.

The great German scholar Brucker (1669-1770) first published his magnum opus Historia Critica Philosophiae at Leipzig in 5 quarto volumes between 1742 and 1744, and it was reprinted with an additional 6th volume in 1767. This monumental work is the foundation of the modern historiography of philosophy. Enfield (1741-1797), dissenting theologian and colleague of Priestly at the influential Warrington Academy, here provides not so much an exact translation as an adaptation of Brucker's text. He wrote in the preface "In regard to language, I have found it wholly impracticable to follow my author. His style is so exceedingly verbose, that it would have been impossible to have made these volumes a translation of select parts, without omitting others equally important, and without at the same time rendering the work tedious to an English reader. Instead of translating the original, I have, therefore, endeavoured to give a faithful representation of its general meaning and spirit".
"For Kant and for the French Encyclopedists Brucker's immenseley learned and detailed history was the principal authority. Freely adapted into an English form by William Enfield .. it was the standard text in England for another thirty years" [Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, VI, 227]. It was reprinted in Britain until 1837.