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3 500 €

Réf : 64916

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Charles de Secondat MONTESQUIEU

De l'Esprit des loix

Chez Barillot & fils [Prault], Genève [Paris] s.d. (1749), in-4 (19x25cm), (8) XXIV : 522pp. (1p. errata) et (4) XVI ; 564pp., 2 volumes reliés.

Counterfeiting of the first edition published by Barrillot (with two r ) in Geneva in 1748. This counterfeit was made by Laurent Durand. It would have been printed in Paris by Prault, and constitutes in the order the second printed edition. It is the first issue of the second edition, a second issue, released soon after, does not contain the sheet of errata in fine of the volume I.

Bindings in full marbled blonde sheepskin. Back with ornate nerves, with a star surrounded at the center of the caissons. Title pieces in red morocco, pieces of tomaison in morocco green. Frieze framing on the boards. Red slices. Inland frieze. A lack in the head of Volume I, the rest of the fragile hat. Headdress of that partly missing. Missing length in headdress of the volume II. Estafilades and scuffs on the boards of the volume II. Friction. Pretty good copy overall.

Book and emblematic flagship of the eighteenth ^century, The Spirit of Laws, that is to say the principles and trends by which bills become law, will have a decisive influence on the political life, and will be a guide for writing of the 1791 Constitution and that of the United States. The general thesis of Montesquieu (1689-1755) is that laws are not only a creation of men - the spirit of laws is "the various relations of laws with various things" - but that the causes which they are numerous; There are therefore physical causes (climate), and moral causes (religion, morals ...). Moreover, a primitive justice is at the origin of the laws; so there is a spirit of laws. But the book is not only a treatise of the spirit which animates the laws, it is before all a treaty of the governments and especially, of the freedom. Although the book was widely read, it was received with some coldness by the philosophers, who did not recognize in Montesquieu one of them and reproached him for his conservatism and received many criticism from the clergy.
Nice copy.

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