The Clarendon Edition of the Works of John Locke: An Outline
Volumes in preparation and in prospect
About the edition
The Locke Board and its publisher, Oxford University Press, aim to place in the public domain critical editions of the complete works of Locke in approximately thirty-seven volumes. The intention is to include all texts hitherto printed that can securely be attributed to him (or in which he had a substantive role in composing), together with his correspondence, and a considerable body of material from his unpublished manuscripts.
The project was envisaged by Peter Laslett in 1954 and accepted by Oxford University Press in 1956, when Esmond de Beer embarked on an edition of Locke’s Correspondence. An editorial board was created in 1972 and a grant from Paul Mellon received in 1973. Publication was inaugurated by Peter Nidditch in 1975 with the appearance of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding. By 2012 eighteen volumes had been published. Editors have been assigned to nearly all remaining volumes.
Each volume is published in hardback and several are in paperback. All volumes so far published remain available, except for the hardback edition of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding. All volumes are available online in Oxford Scholarly Editions Online, and the Correspondence is also available in the Electronic Enlightenment.
The Locke Board meets once a year in Oxford. The General Editor is J. R. Milton. The Chair is Mark Goldie. The OUP commissioning editor is Peter Momtchiloff.
Members of the Board
M. R. Ayers, emeritus, University of Oxford
John Dunn, emeritus, King’s College, Cambridge
Mark Goldie, Churchill College, Cambridge
J. R. Milton, emeritus, King’s College, London
G. A. J. Rogers, emeritus, Keele University
Jacqueline Rose, University of St Andrews
M. A. Stewart, emeritus, Lancaster University
James Tully, emeritus, University of Victoria, Canada
Former members: E. S. de Beer, Jonquil Bevan, Peter Laslett, W. von Leyden, P. H. Nidditch, R. H. Robbins, Robert Shackleton, John Yolton. The first General Editor was Peter Nidditch, the second John Yolton, and the third M. A. Stewart.
Volumes published (18)
1975 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Peter H. Nidditch
1976-89 The Correspondence of John Locke, 8 vols., ed. E. S. de Beer
1987 A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St Paul, 2 vols., ed. Arthur W. Wainwright
1989 Some Thoughts Concerning Education, eds. John W. and Jean S. Yolton
1990 Drafts for the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and Other Philosophical Writings, vol. 1, eds. Peter H. Nidditch and G. A. J. Rogers
1991 Locke on Money, 2 vols., ed. Patrick Hyde Kelly
1999 The Reasonableness of Christianity, ed. John C. Higgins-Biddle
2006 An Essay Concerning Toleration and Other Writings on Law and Politics, 1667-1683, eds. J. R. Milton and Philip Milton
2012 Vindications of the Reasonableness of Christianity, ed. Victor Nuovo
Volumes in preparation and in prospect (19)
Drafts for the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, vol. 2, eds. G. A. J. Rogers and J. R. Milton
The Conduct of the Understanding and Other Philosophical Writings, 1690-1704,* eds. Paul Schuurman and Jonathan Craig Walmsley
The Correspondence, vol. 9, Supplement, ed. Mark Goldie
The Correspondence, vol. 10, Index, ed. M. A. Stewart
A Discourse of Miracles and other Theological Writings, ed. Victor Nuovo
Colonial Writings, ed. David Armitage
Writings on Natural Philosophy and Medicine, eds. Peter Anstey and Lawrence Principe
Disputations on the Law of Nature,** eds. Hannah Dawson and Richard Ellis
Literary and Historical Writings, ed. J. R. Milton (with Brandon Chua, Geoffrey Kemp, David McInnis, John Spurr, and Richard Yeo)
Two Tracts on Government, eds. Jacqueline Rose and Peter Maxwell-Stuart
The Nature of Churches,*** ed. Timothy Stanton
Letters Concerning Toleration, 2 vols., ed. Teresa Bejan
Translations of Pierre Nicole’s Essais de Morale, ed. Delphine Soulard
The Journals, 3 vols., ed. Henry Schankula
Two Treatises of Government [no current editor]
Replies to Edward Stillingfleet [no current editor]
* Previously announced as Drafts, vol. 3.
**Hitherto known as ‘Essays on the Law of Nature’ (or ‘Questions Concerning the Law of Nature’).
*** Hitherto known as ‘A Defence of Nonconformity’ or ‘Critical Notes on Stillingfleet’.
Current volume editors
Peter Anstey, Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney
David Armitage, Department of History, Harvard University
Teresa Bejan, Department of Politics, University of Oxford
Brandon Chua, School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland
Hannah Dawson, Department of History, King’s College, London
Richard Ellis, independent scholar
Mark Goldie, Faculty of History, and Churchill College, University of Cambridge
Geoff Kemp, Department of Politics, University of Auckland
David McInnis, Department of English, Melbourne University
Peter Maxwell-Stuart, independent scholar
J. R. Milton, Department of Philosophy, King’s College London
Victor Nuovo, Department of Philosophy, Middlebury College
Lawrence Principe, Department of History of Science, Johns Hopkins University
G. A. J. Rogers, emeritus, Department of Philosophy, Keele University
Jacqueline Rose, Department of History, St Andrew’s University
Henry Schankula, emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Kentucky
Paul Schuurman, Department of Philosophy, Erasmus University
Delphine Soulard, independent scholar
John Spurr, Department of History, Swansea University
Timothy Stanton, Department of Politics, York University
M. A. Stewart, emeritus, Department of Philosophy, Lancaster University
Jonathan Craig Walmsley, independent scholar
Richard Yeo, Faculty of Arts, Griffith University, Brisbane
Associated publications
Not part of the Clarendon Edition, but with the guidance of the Board.
John Locke, Writings on Religion, ed. Victor Nuovo (2002)
The Selected Correspondence of John Locke, ed. Mark Goldie (2002)
The Early Lives of John Locke, eds. Mark Goldie and Delphine Soulard (in preparation)
The Library of John Locke, ed. Felix Waldmann (in preparation)
Contacts and websites
For matters concerning the Edition contact: J. R. Milton (john.milton@kcl.ac.uk) or Mark Goldie (mag1010@cam.ac.uk)
Oxford University Press – Clarendon Locke Edition
The Library of John Locke
In 1965 John Harrison and Peter Laslett published The Library of John Locke (2nd edition, 1971), a superlative service to scholarship. However, scholarship moves on, and an entire subdiscipline of the history of the book has since emerged. Furthermore, Harrison and Laslett’s book arguably offered an unsatisfactory hybrid, being neither quite an edition of Locke’s own catalogues nor an autonomous scholarly catalogue of books which Locke owned.
A new version would, inter alia, provide fuller bibliographic descriptions, and identify all annotations and present locations. One model is Nicolas Kiessling’s edition of Anthony Wood’s library (2002). Ideally, the new project would also capture all works cited in Locke’s publications, journals, notebooks, and correspondence, and thereby provide a comprehensive inventory of Locke in the world of print.
Dr Felix Waldmann has embarked on this as a long-term project. He has published some preliminary findings in ‘The Library of John Locke: Additions, Corrigenda, and a Conspectus of Pressmarks’, Bodleian Library Record, 26 (2013), 36-58.
Such a project would need to be published in electronic form, both for public access and to allow for continuing augmentation. We believe, however, that there would remain scope for print publication as well. While the Editorial Board of the Clarendon Edition of the Works of John Locke does not include the project within its formal remit, it has given its strong encouragement to it.
Locke scholars are invited to offer thoughts and suggestions concerning the project, and, in particular, to send information to Dr Waldmann about the present locations of any of Locke’s books not mentioned in The Library of John Locke or in Dr Waldmann’s article, whether in libraries, private collections, or auction catalogues.
Mark Goldie (mag1010@cam.ac.uk)
J. R. Milton (john.milton@kcl.ac.uk)
Felix Waldmann (few23@cam.ac.uk)
