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650 €

Réf : 65195

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Honoré Gabriel Riquetti Comte de MIRABEAU

Des Lettres de cachet et des Prisons d'état. Ouvrage posthume, composé en 1778

S.n., AHambourg 1782, 2 parties en un Vol. fort in-8 (12x20cm), xiv (2) 366pp. ; (2) 237pp., relié.

First edition. The second part is considered rare, since Prussia was asked to seize the manuscript and to burn the copies, but we note that the second part is present in many copies.
Binding full brown marbled vintage calf. Back with nerves richly adorned. Title piece in red morocco. Tail cap partially torn off. Epidermury on the lower dish with a lack along the bit. 2 blunt corners. A brown spot in the top margin of p. 49, about 2 cm. Missing in the margin at the corner of p. 144, without infringement of the text. Some yellowed notebooks. Good copy.
The book, composed during and after the arrest and incarceration of Mirabeau at Vincennes, is a plea and an indictment against arbitrary justice and power. "I am beginning to talk about arbitrary imprisonment and state prisons. Many historical commentaries and important material on arbitrary power and judicial exercise are found in the book. In the second part, Mirabeau deals more closely with prison life and prisons. Mirabeau also dwells on the English constitution, and tends to prove that our own history condemns the use of lettres de cachet, just as it makes kings the only agents of the people. Rich documentation on prisons and incarceration.

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