Critique of Pure Reason

Riga, 1781: eight hundred and fifty-six pages

Immanuel Kant's German-language Critik der reinen Vernunft appeared in 1781 in the first edition now conventionally designated "A," carrying the imprint Riga: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch.

The volume ran to 856 numbered pages, on top of its title, dedication and preface leaves. The title page used the contemporary spelling Critik; the modern German title is normally spelled Kritik der reinen Vernunft.

A letter to Marcus Herz, and no fixed publication day

On 1 May, Kant wrote to his former student Marcus Herz announcing that a book titled Critique of Pure Reason would appear at the current Easter book fair, and described it as the result of investigations that had grown out of questions the two had discussed.

1 May was the date of Kant's letter, not a securely established publication date. The year and the Easter-fair context are securely documented; the consulted bibliographical sources do not establish an exact release day.

Kant's own account of the timing was retrospective: at least twelve years of reflection, then roughly four to five months to put the thing into its final written form.

Six years to a substantially revised edition

The reception history records little public reaction in the first couple of years, and much of it hostile. Christian Garve and J. G. H. Feder produced the heavily edited hostile review that appeared in 1782.

Kant issued the more accessible Prolegomena in 1783. The substantially revised second edition of the Critique itself did not appear until 1787.