London: Printed by J. Streater, for Livewell Chapman, 1656. First edition. Small folio. (xii), 239, (1), 255-286, 189-210, (2) pp. Title-page printed in red and in black. Full contemporary brown calf, ruled in blind, rebacked, tips renewed, red gilt morocco spine label, scattered wear and rubbing to boards; dark stained edges; text leaves toned with offsetting, spotting to same throughout; small worming in top edge of pp. 55-60; contemporary marginalia and corrections; 18th-century inscription on title-page: "By James Harrington a political Writer in 1650-70 in 1661 he was sent to the Tower on suspicion of treasonable designs. His intellects seem to have failed afterwards. he died in 1677 Pepys's Diary". Pforzheimer 449

A celebrated work of political philosophy, which, next to Thomas More's Utopia "is perhaps the most famous attempt at envisioning a model commonwealth" (Pforzheimer). A work of utopian fiction, here Harrington envisions the country of Oceana, with a republican constitution, bicameral legislature, and other features that would have a profound influence on thinkers such as Montesquieu, Hume, Blackstone, and Locke, as well as thinkers of the American Revolutionary generation such as John Adams.