Projet de Code civil, présenté par la Commission nommée par le gouvernement le 24 thermidor an 8

Extremely rare printing by Fauvelle, official printer for the Tribunaux de la Seine, contemporary and textually identical to the octavo and quarto editions by the Imprimerie de la République. Only four copies with Fauvelle's imprint in OCLC (BnF, National Library of Spain, Royal Danish Library, Stadtbibliothek Worms).

Bradel-style binding in full marbled paper boards, flat spine with red roan label, light foxing to the first three leaves.

First version of the Napoleonic Code, presented by the four members of Bonaparte's commission appointed to draft the civil code. Also contains the important “Preliminary Address to the First Draft of the Civil Code,” outlining the influences and objectives behind this landmark work - the first modern legal code to be widely adopted in Europe, which influenced the codes of jurisdictions all over the world.

Under Bonaparte’s authority, the legislative commission led by Tronchet (president), Portalis, Bigot de Préameneu, and Maleville completed this draft civil code in just four months, presented in Frimaire Year IX of the Republican Calendar (January 1801). The structure of the text mirrors that of the Civil Code which came into effect in 21 March 1804. There are however both technical and philosophical differences: this project contains a Preliminary Book “On Rights and Laws,” comprising six titles, which would later be reduced in the Code to a single introductory article. Most sections in this version begin with explanatory comments, many of which were later removed, particularly in the first half of the code. As the Allgemeine Literatur Zeitung observed, "It can often be very useful to consult both the draft and the final code, even in matters of legal dogmatics, for the general principles and explanations provided by the commission are typically still valid for the code, not because they were rejected as incorrect, but rather deemed unsuitable for inclusion in the final version" (25 March 1810). This first version of the Code was published for the Court of Cassation and appellate courts to collect their amendments. Fauvelle, printer of this edition likely intended for Parisian magistrates, was among the publishers of judicial commentaries submitted in response to the government's request. The courts delivered their remarks within six months of this edition’s release. After three years of debate and some one hundred sessions—half chaired by Bonaparte himself—the Civil Code was adopted in the form of 36 legislative bills and soon became known as the Napoleonic Code.

This edition also includes the only appearance at the time of a Preliminary Address, in essence the statement of purpose for the draft Civil Code by the four-member governmental commission between August 1800 and January 1801. [...] The Preliminary Address is in fact the work of Portalis, whose spirit of moderation guided the drafters of the code. The legislator must remain modest, Portalis maintained: a code should not seek to say everything; it must leave room for interpretation by the courts and jurists, which leads to the famous phrase: “The codes of nations evolve with time; properly speaking, they are not made.” The Preliminary Address is also a brilliant piece of propaganda, outlining pacification by the Consulate after the Revolution and presenting the future code as a synthesis of the legal tradition from the French monarchy and new revolutionary principles.” (Canadian Ministry of Justice, May 2004). This rare speech would not appear again until 1836, in Fenet’s Recueil complet des travaux préparatoires du Code civil (vol. I, p. 436).

Rare copy of the only published preliminary version of the French Civil Code, issued three years prior to the promulgation of the final text in 1804.