Mendelssohn, MosesBiblio.com
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1780010808Carlsruhe: Im Verlag der Schmiederischen Buchhandlung 1780 Book. Fair. Hardcover. iv 283 1 pages. Vol 2 only - with a series title page - Sammlung der besten deutschen prosaischen Schriftsteller und Dichter Neun und neunzigster Theil - Mendelssohns philosophische Schriften. Undated circa 1780. Pages spotted throughout. In more recent cloth binding which is mottled with damp to the boards. Bookplate removed form the front pastedown. Ink number to the upper outer corner of the title page. Vol 2 only. Im Verlag der Schmiederischen Buchhandlung hardcover
1776000046Frankfurt Und Leipzig: 1776 1776 224pp.original cover wrapped.1 illustration at the beginning.foxed. Frankfurt Und Leipzig: , 1776 hardcover
180011012B1800. In 2 Vol. Parma: Dalla Reale Tipografia Parmense. 1800. CXVI264; 239 p. Later half vellum some rubbing. 1 page with outer corner torn away but no loss of text. Title page slight staining apart from this stainfree. An attractive wide-margined copy on laid paper. hardcover
1776190450Frankfurt & Leipzig.: No publisher. 1776. Publisher’s plain wraps paper spine label with handwritten title. . Very good untrimmed in the wraps. 8vo. 19.5x12 cm. German text. Mendelssohn’s musing on the immortality of the soul. weight: 0.4 lb. Engraved frontis. No publisher. paperback
179347688Berlin:: In der Vossischen Buchhandlung 1793. Second edition. contemporary paper-covered boards. Old private ownership stamp and signature on title page which is slightly stained; front joint and corners rubbed; but tight and sound. . 12mo. In der Vossischen Buchhandlung, hardcover
1785PNDilMEN56Troppau: Joseph Georg Trassler 1785. 1785. 2 Volumes. 8vo. pp. 268; 167 1. contemporary bds. some scattered foxing. cfRand I 369. Troppau: Joseph Georg Trassler, 1785. unknown
1791PNDädMEN98Carlsruhe: Schmiederischen Buchhandlung 1791. 1791. 8vo. pp. 5 p.l. 52 224. woodcut title vignette. later marbled bds. rubbed front joint & extremities bit chipped light dampstaining throughout. Mendelssohn's dialogue on immortality in imitation of Plato's Phaedo was first published in 1767. Leben und Charakter des Socrates which occupies pp. 52 at the beginning is chiefly based on the Life of Socrates by J.C.Cooper. cfRand I 369. Carlsruhe: Schmiederischen Buchhandlung, 1791. unknown
17876593Bern: in der Hallerschen Buchandlung 1787. Soft cover. Good. 8vo 152 x 95mm. 60pp. Modern wrappers margins trimmed close occasional spots lightly browned; front wrap loose but present. A satire on the Berlin academy written jointly by Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn criticizing the philosophical system of Alexander Popeís Essay on Man 1733-1734. Lessing German writer critic and dramatist was one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings often witty and ironic substantially influenced the development of German literature. In 1755 the collaborative work of Lessing and his friend philosopher Moses Mendelssohn anonymously appeared in the form of this provocative treatise Pope ein Metaphysiker! Pope as a Metaphysician. The controversial treatise dissected the subject of a contest at the Prussian Royal Academy. The two friends wrote it to confirm that there cannot be a true comparison between a poetic and a philosophic conception. <br/><br/> Bern: in der Hallerschen Buchandlung paperback
177214851A Paris Saillant 1772. Cont. full mottled calf. Back worn as the golddecoration is nearly gone. Engraved frontisp. XXIV3422 pp. A few lvs. slightly browned otherwise internally fine. <br/><br/><em>Scarce first French edition. </em> unknown
1785SZEPEBKS007095IWien: Sebastian Hartl 1785. First . Soft cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 16mo. 17x10.5 cm. - 79 pp. - Near fine in contemporary strong grey wrappers. - Small ownership stamp on title-page. <br/> <br/> Sebastian Hartl paperback
178043258Carlsruhe: im Verlag der Schmiederischen Buchhandlung 1780. No Date 1780s. Period laquered boards with leather spine label. 12mo. XXIV 278; 283 pages. In German. Title translates as “Writings.†Includes 2 different title vignettes 1 on each title page.<br> <br> Goedeke IV 1 488 6. Meyer 108; Dorn 105-107; Holzmann/Bohatta Deutsches Anomymen-Lexikon IV no. 1559. <br> <br> Early printing of Mendelssohn’s second work in which he "began his formulation of a new psychological theory that stressed the autonomy of aesthetics logic and ethics relative to each other." Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions p. 710. <br> <br> Contents:<br> <br> Vol. 1. Vorrede. <br> I. Ueber die Empfindungen.<br> II. Gespräche; <br> <br> Vol. 2. I. Rhapsodie oder Zusätze zu den Briefen über die Empfindungen. <br> II. Ueber die Hauptgrundsätze der schönen Künste und Wissenschaften. <br> III. Ueber das Erhabene und Naive in den schönen Wissenschaften. <br> IV. Ueber die Wahrscheinlichkeit. <br> <br> Also includes bibliographical references.<br> <br> Included within these is a series of writings on aesthetics which influenced Lessing and Schiller with Lessing noting“We have to thank him Mendelssohn for the true theory of mixed sensations.â€<br> <br> Moses Mendelssohn Moses of Dessau; 1729–1786 was a philosopher of the German Enlightenment in the pre-Kantian period early Maskil and a renowned Jewish figure in the 18th century. Mendelssohn was fluent in German and Hebrew and learned Latin Greek English French and Italian. His early teachers were young broadly educated Jews and he met the writer and dramatist G.E. Lessing 1754 and a deep and lifelong friendship developed between them. Throughout his life he worked as a merchant while carrying out his literary activities and widespread correspondence in his free time. In 1754 Mendelssohn began to publish – at first with the assistance of Lessing – philosophical writings and later also literary reviews. <br> He also started a few literary projects for example the short-lived periodical Kohelet Musar in order to enrich and change Jewish culture and took part in the early Haskalah. In 1763 he was awarded the first prize of the Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences for his work Abhandlung über die Evidenz in metaphysischen Wissenschaften "Treatise on Evidence in Metaphysical Knowledge". However when the academy elected him as a member in 1771 King Frederick II refused to ratify its decision. <br> <br> In 1769 he became embroiled in a dispute on the Jewish religion and from then on he confined most of his literary activity to the sphere of Judaism. His most notable and enduring works in this area included the translation into German and commentary on the Pentateuch Sefer Netivot ha-Shalom "Book of the Paths of Peace" 1780–83 and his Jerusalem: oder Ueber religiöse Macht und Judenthum "Jerusalem or On Religious Power and Judaism" 1783 this work the first polemical defense of Judaism in the German language and one of the pioneering works of modern Jewish philosophy. <br> <br> An active intermediary on behalf of his own people in difficult times and a participant in their struggle for equal rights he was at the same time a forceful defender of the Enlightenment against the opposition to it which gained strength toward the end of his life. In the midst of a literary battle against one of the leading figures of the counter-Enlightenment he died in 1786 EJ. <br> <br> SUBJECTS: Philosophy -- Early works to 1800. Philosophie -- Ouvrages avant 1800. Philosophy. OCLC: 1352546328. <br> <br> Light wear to original boards more so at spine but solid and attractive light spotting as expected About Very Good- Condition an attractive 18th Century copy. B KH-10-31. Carlsruhe: im Verlag der Schmiederischen Buchhandlung unknown
176752885Amsterdam 1767. Vermehret mit den zweifeln und dem Orakel über die Bestimmung des Menschen von eben diesem Verfasser Frühe Besitzereinträge auf Vorsatzbl. Neue Ausgabe Kl.-8°. Pbd. d. Zt. Philosophie unknown
177243257Paris et Bayeux chez Saillant et Lepelley 1772. 1st French-language edition. Period full leather binding with gilt spine and red edges with original marbled endpapers 8vo. Includes frontis copperplate etching. XXIV 342 1 pages. “Traduit de l’Allemand par M. Junker de l’Académie des Belles-Lettres de Goettingen.â€<br> This first French edition appeared 5 years after the first German edition of 1767<br> <br> "Phaedon or On the Immortality of the Soul" Phaedon Oder Ueber Die Unsterblichkeit Der Seele In Drey Gespraechen is one of Mendelssohn's 1729-1786 most famous publications establishing his reputation as the "German Socrates of Berlin." It is a philosophical interpretation of the Platonic dialogue "Phaedo" and is preceded by a biography on "The Life and Character of Socrates." The important German-Jewish philosopher was one of the most important representatives of the Enlightenment in Prussia and throughout Germany.<br> <br> Mendelssohn's Phaedon is a “classic of rational psychology on the immortality of the human soul a defining work by this leading enlightenment philosopher who launched the Jewish thinking of the modern age" with his tribute to Socrates modeled on Plato's dialogue the Phaedo.<br> Mendelssohn used Plato's famous dialogue the Phaedo as a model to publish Phädon oder über die Unsterblichkeit der Seele. With this seminal work "he reached the heights of fame" Wigoder Dictionary of Jewish Biography 342. <br> The work unites Mendelssohn's "paean to Socrates with an elaboration of the dreadful personal moral and political implications if a person's life is her 'highest good'… <br> This 'classic of rational psychology' as Dilthey put it also contains an argument for the simplicity and immortality of the human soul explicitly singled out for criticism by Kant in the 2nd edition of the Critique of Pure Reason. Mendelssohn supports the notion that the soul is simple and thus indestructible by noting that certain features of the soul namely the unifying character of consciousness and the identity of self-consciousness cannot be derived from anything composite whether those composite parts be capable or not of thinking… <br> As for the human soul's fate after death Mendelssohn appeals to divine goodness and providence which perhaps explains why following the publication of the Phaedo he finds himself needing to revisit the proofs for God's existence" Stanford Encyclopedia.<br> According to Mendelssohn’s modern biographer Alexander Altmann “The work that would establish Mendelssohn's world-wide renown and win him the title 'the German Socrates' was the dialogue Phaedon which was published in 1767. In this work he presented Socratic wisdom from the mouth of the ancient philosopher but in the language of the Enlightenment that is in his own words as a modern philosopher. <br> The work drew both praise and criticism but was on the whole popular in intellectual circles. It demonstrates Mendelssohn's unique ability as a Jew to be comfortable in the realm of both classical and enlightened philosophy not to mention languages. David Sorkin remarks ‘What is ironic is that Mendelssohn was known and revered as much for the quality of his prose as for his thought.†<br> Mendelssohn was himself often referred to as the German Plato or the German Socrates. <br> And “As a Jew living in Germany Moses Mendelssohn 1729-1786 stands at a pivotal point in the history of Jewish emancipation in Europe. There were Jews before him who had access to the corridors of power in Germany and elsewhere in Europe but Mendelssohn represents the first to be socially accepted to a significant extent within enlightened German culture without converting. <br> He not only conformed to the culture of the German Enlightenment in many ways but also helped shape the culture through his philosophical contributions. At the same time Mendelssohn refused to turn away from traditional Judaism. He attempted to become a full- fledged member of society during the emergence of modern Europe while remaining a proponent of Judaism as a revealed religion. Moreover he sought to use his place of influence to encourage Jewish acculturation in Germany and to speak on behalf of the emancipation of Jewish people…. <br> The traditional mentality of the European Jews prior to Mendelssohn's time included a kind of resignation to the incompatibility of Jewish learning and 'worldly' philosophy. This resignation contributed to Jewish cultural isolation. Alfred Jospe describes the conundrum in which a Jew found himself if he wished to enter the culture of the non-Jewish world: The Jew could gain access to the culture of the world only by rebelling against the traditional repudiation of all mundane wisdom. <br> It is just at this point that Mendelssohn broke the mold. He not only acquired modern German culture but did so by means of his understanding of and contributions to the philosophy that shaped that culture. In his monumental biographical study Alexander Altmann focuses as much on Mendelssohn's philosophy and his answers to contemporary critics as he does on the details of the events and influences of his life. Altmann states with appropriate admiration that “Considering the state of degradation in which the Jewish population lived in eighteenth-century Germany. Mendelssohn's rise to fame and his acceptance into the republic of letters was an amazing feat of personal achievement.†<br> The amazing feature of Mendelssohn's achievement is that he accomplished it as an avowedly traditional Jew. Mendelssohn has been rightly described as a rabbinic scholar but he made his reputation in non-Jewish intellectual circles as a literary critic and philosopher….with the help of both Gotthold Lessing and the Berlin publisher Friedrich Nicolai he was accepted into the inner circle of the Berlin Aufklärung. <br> His essays reviews and translations earned him tremendous status among German intellectuals. <br> The favorable comparison made by Lessing between the quintessential German poet Goethe and Mendelssohn is a mark of the esteem in which he was held. ‘Lessing told Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi that once Goethe regained his reason he would be hardly more than an ordinary man. At the very same time he said of Mendelssohn that he was the most lucid thinker the most excellent philosopher and the best literary critic of the century’" Clark 2005. P. 57-58. <br> OCLC: 19939219. <br> Very light edgewear to front endpapers touch of spotting a gorgeous copy in the original leather binding with tooled gilt spine with raised bands and leather label. Beautiful and scarce. B KH-10-30-RLB-’e. Paris et Bayeux, chez Saillant et Lepelley unknown
178928250Berlin: bei Friedrich Vieweg dem álteren 1789.- 3 h. 250 p.; 8º 17 x 11 cm.; buena impresión en letra gótica sobre excelente papel verjurado; Plena Piel valenciana en tonos marrones lomo dorado con filetes y bandas sobre los nervios estuche. Salvo una pequeña marca de humedad en el margen superior de unas 8 hojas que no toca texto su estado es excelente. FILOSOFÃA E HISTORIA DE LA CULTURA Buch auf deutsch bei Friedrich Vieweg, dem álteren hardcover
17962330942Berlin: Bey Haude und Spener 1796. Second Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. Second edition. Sticker on front corner edges rubbed ink name and stamp on endpapers. Scarce - only 12 in OCLC. 1796 Hard Cover. 124 pp. German text. Paper over boards handwritten titles on spine. Mendelssohn's ideas brought about the Haskalah Jewish Enlightenment. This work applies mathematical proofs to metaphysics. It won the author first prize in a Berlin Academy essay contest over Immanuel Kant and Thomas Abbt. Bey Haude und Spener hardcover
1789ABC_50040Berlin 1789. 8vo. Friedrich Vieweg Slightly later gold-tooled half calf sewn on 3 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine with the author title and a monogram lettered in gold on the spine a red round morocco label with the number "125" mounted at the foot dark brown cloth sides brown sprinkled edges. 6 "250" = 248 pp. First edition of this posthumous collection of shorter writings by the influential German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn 1729-1786 edited by Johann Georg Müchler 1724-1819. The collection was intended to preserve and re-circulate a number of Mendelssohns shorter philosophical essays many of which had previously appeared scattered across contemporary journals and had already become difficult to obtain. In bringing them together Müchler ensured the continued availability of texts that illuminate the breadth of Mendelssohns thought and the literary clarity for which he was celebrated.With a bookplate mounted on the front pastedown inscribed Noel Gouton 1903 made by Stern Graveur a prominent Parisian engraving house active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries which specialized in high-quality ex-libris. The edges of the boards are slightly scuffed the spine is somewhat discoloured. Internally very clean. Otherwise in very good condition.l Fürst II p. 362; Goedeke IV p. 164 no. 19; VD18 13630814; WorldCat 231070909 172996042 10 copies; cf. Albrecht Moses Mendelssohn 1729-1786. Das Lebenswerk eines jüdischen Denkers der deutschen Aufklärung 1986. hardcover
178950977Berlin 1789. Mit einer Skizze seines Lebens und Charakters von D.Jenisch. Beigebunden: Philipson Moses; Leben Benedikt's von Spinoza Braunschweig 1790 N.a.Vorsatzbl.Guter Zustand Zwei erste Ausgaben W/G 36 Vieweg 8°. Pbd. d. Zt. Philosophie unknown
1795RB007Vienna: Anton Schmid 1795. Second. Good. 1795 rare copy of Netivot Ha-shalom The Paths of Peace. A German translation in the Hebrew alphabet of the book of Genesis by Moses Mendelssohn 1729-1786. It includes the Hebrew text of the Bible and a commentary by Mendelssohn. The last 200 pages of the book is the Aramaic text of Onkelos commentary of Rashi and the Haftaroth. This book is a former synagogue copy and in great shape for a book 230 years old. Binding still tight. Although there is wear on the pages it is very readable. Inside front and back covers are 3 off-white blank rectangular stickers one has been torn off leaving residue Markings on both sides of the page preceding the title page. Purple synagogue stamp at top of page prior to the text. That page has a 1-inch tear at the top middle edge. There is another stamp on the bottom right corner of pages 81b and 88b. Light penciled lines about one inch long on 5 pages of the introduction at least one other page of the book has similar marks. About 20 pages with the reverse page's text legible but still readable. Lh Anton Schmid unknown
178945724Breslau Gottl. Löwe 1789 8vo. Very beautiful contemporary red full calf binding with five raised bands and gilt green leather title-label to richly gilt spine. elaborate gilt borders to boards inside which a "frame" made up of gilt dots with giltcorner-ornamentations. Edges of boards gilt and inner gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Minor light brownspotting. Marginal staining to the last leaves. Engraved frontispiece-portrait of Spinoza engraved title-vignette double-portrait of Lessing and Mendelssohn engraved end-vignette portrait of Jacobi. Frontispiece title-page LI 1 -errata 440 pp. Magnificent copy. <br/><br/><em>First edition thus being the seminal second edition the "neue vermehrte Auflage" new and expanded edition which has the hugely important 180 pp. of "Beylage" for the first time which include the first translation into any language of any part of Giordano Bruno's "de Uno et Causa." pp. 261-306 as well as several other pieces of great importance to the "Pantheismusstreit" and to the interpretation of the philosophy of Spinoza and Leibniz here for the first time in print. The present translation of Bruno seems to be the earliest translation of any of Bruno's works into German and one of the earliest translations of Bruno at all - as far as we can establish the second only preceded by an 18th century translation into English of "Spaccio della bestia trionfante". It is with the present edition of Jacobi's work that the interest in Bruno is founded and with which Bruno is properly introduced to the modern world. Jacobi not only provides what is supposedly the second earliest translation of any of Bruno's works ever to appear he also establishes the great influence that Bruno had on two of our greatest thinkers Spinoza and Leibnitz. It is now generally accepted that Spinoza founds his ethical thought upon Bruno and that Lebnitz has taken his concept of the "Monads" from him. It is Jacobi who with the second edition of his "Letters on Spinoza." for the first time ever puts Bruno where he belongs and establishes his position as one of the key figures of modern philosophy and thought. Bruno's works the first editions of which are all of the utmost scarcity were not reprinted in their time and new editions of them did not begin appearing until the 19th century. For three centuries his works had been hidden away in libraries where only few people had access to them. Thus as important as his teachings were thinkers of the ages to come were largely reliant on more or less reliable renderings and reproductions of his thoughts. As Jacobi states in the preface to the second edition of his "Letters on Spinoza." "There appears in this new edition under the title of Appendices "Beylage" different essays of which I will here first give an account. The first Appendix is an excerpt from the extremely rare book "De la causa principio et Uno" by Jordan Bruno. This strange man was born one knows not in which year in Nola in the Kingdom of Naples; and died on February 17th 1600 in Rome on the stake. With great diligence Brucker has been gathering information on him but in spite of that has only been able to deliver fragments not in translation. For a long time his works were partly neglected due to their obscurity partly not respected due to the prejudice against the new opinions and thoughts expressed in them and partly loathed and suppressed due to the dangerous teachings they could contain. On these grounds the current scarcity of his works is easily understood. Brucker could only get to see the work "De Minimo" La Croce only had the book "De Immenso et Innumerabilibus" in front of him or at least he only provides excerpts from this also not in translation as Heumann does only from the "Physical Theorems" also small fragments not in translation; also Bayle had of Bruno's metaphysical works himself also merely read this work of which I here provide an excerpt." Vorrede pp. VII-VIII - own translation from the German. Jacobi continues by stating that although everyone complains about the obscurity of Bruno's teachings and thoughts some of the greatest thinkers such as Gassendi Descartes "and our own Leibnitz" p. IX have taken important parts of their theorems and teachings from him. "I will not discuss this further and will merely state as to the great obscurity "grossen Dunkelheit" of which people accuse Bruno that I have found this in neither his book "de la Causa" nor in "De l'Infinito Universo et Mondi" of which I will speak implicitly on another occasion. As to the first book my readers will be able to judge for themselves from the sample "Probe" that I here present. My excerpt can have become a bit more comprehensible due to the fact that I have only presented the System of Bruno himself the "Philosophia Nolana" which he himself calls it in its continuity. My main purpose with this excerpt is by uniting Bruno with Spinoza at the same time to show and explain the "Summa of Philosophy" "Summa der Philosophie" of "En kai Pan" in Greek characters - meaning "One and All". . It is very difficult to outline "Pantheism" in its broader sense more purely and more beautifully than Bruno has done." Vorrede pp. IX-XI - own translation from the German. So not only does Jacobi here provide this groundbreaking piece of Bruno's philosophy in the first translation ever and not only does he provide one of the most important interpretations of Spinoza's philosophy and establishes the importance of Bruno to much of modern thought he also presents Bruno as the primary exponent of "pantheism" thereby using Bruno to change the trajectory of modern thought and influencing all philosophy of the decades to come. After the second edition of Jacobi's "Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza" no self-respecting thinker could neglect the teachings of Bruno; he could no longer be written off as having "obscure" and insignificant teachings and one could no longer read Spinoza nor Leibnitz without thinking of Bruno. It is with this edition that the world rediscovers Bruno never to forget him again.WITH THE FIRST EDITION OF "UEBER DIE LEHRE DES SPINOZA" 1785 JACOBI BEGINS THE FAMOUS "PATHEISMUSSTREIT" which focused attention on the apparent conflict between human freedom and any systematic philosophical interpretation of reality. In 1780 Jacobi 1743-1819 famous for coining the term nihilism advocating "belief" and "revelation" instead of speculative reason thereby anticipating much of present-day literature and for his critique of the Sturm-und-Drang-era had a conversation with Lessing in which Lessing stated that the only true philosophy was Spinozism. This led Jacobi to a protracted and serious study of Spinoza's works. After Lessing's death in 1783 Jacobi began a lengthy letter-correspondende with Mendelssohn a close friend of Lessing on the philosophy of Spinoza. These letters with commentaries by Jacobi are what constitute the first edition of "Ueber die lehre des Spinoza" as well as the first part of the second edition. The second edition is of much greater importance however due to greatly influential Appendices. The work caused great furor and the enmity of the Enlightenment thinkers. Jacobi was ridiculed by his contemporaries for attempting to reintroduce into philosophy belief instead of reason was seen as an enemy of reason and Enlightenment as a pietist and as a Jesuit. But the publication of the work not only caused great furor in wider philosophical circles there was also a personal side to the scandal which has made it one of the most debated books of the period: "Mendelssohn enjoyed as noted at the outset a lifelong friendship with G. E. Lessing. Along with Mendelssohn Lessing embraced the idea of a purely rational religion and would endorse Mendelssohn's declaration: "My religion recognizes no obligation to resolve doubt other than through rational means; and it commands no mere faith in eternal truths" Gesammelte Schriften Volume 3/2 p. 205. To pietists of the day such declarations were scandalous subterfuges of an Enlightenment project of assimilating religion to natural reason. While Mendelssohn skillfully avoided that confrontation he found himself reluctantly unable to remain silent when after Lessing's death F. H. Jacobi contended that Lessing embraced Spinoza's pantheism and thus exemplified the Enlightenment's supposedly inevitable descent into irreligion.Following private correspondence with Jacobi on the issue and an extended period when Jacobi in personal straits at the time did not respond to his objections Mendelssohn attempted to set the record straight about Lessing's Spinozism in "Morning Hours". Learning of Mendelssohn's plans incensed Jacobi who expected to be consulted first and who accordingly responded by publishing without Mendelssohn's consent their correspondence - "On the Teaching of Spinoza in Letters to Mr. Moses Mendelssohn" - a month before the publication of "Morning Hours". Distressed on personal as well as intellectual levels by the controversy over his departed friend's pantheism Mendelssohn countered with a hastily composed piece "To the Friends of Lessing: an Appendix to Mr. Jacobi's Correspondence on the Teaching of Spinoza". According to legend so anxious was Mendelssohn to get the manuscript to the publisher that forgetting his overcoat on a bitterly cold New Year's eve he delivered the manuscript on foot to the publisher. That night he came down with a cold from which he died four days later prompting his friends to charge Jacobi with responsibility for Mendelssohn's death.The sensationalist character of the controversy should not obscure the substance and importance of Mendelssohn's debate with Jacobi. Jacobi had contended that Spinozism is the only consistent position for a metaphysics based upon reason alone and that the only solution to this metaphysics so detrimental to religion and morality is a leap of faith that salto mortale that poor Lessing famously refused to make. Mendelssohn counters Jacobi's first contention by attempting to demonstrate the metaphysical inconsistency of Spinozism. He takes aim at Jacobi's second contention by demonstrating how the "purified Spinozism" or "refined pantheism" embraced by Lessing is in the end only nominally different from theism and thus a threat neither to religion nor to morality." SEP.The Beylagen which are not included in the 1785 first edition and only appear with the 1789 second edition include: I. Auszug aus Jordan Bruno von Nola. Von der Ursache dem Princip und dem Einen p. 261-306 II. Diokles an Diotime über den Atheismus p. 307-327 translation of Lettre . sur l'Athéisme by F. Hemsterhuis. </em> hardcover
