[Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat]

Estimate

5,000 - 6,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

De l'esprit dex loix, ou du rapport que les loix doivent avoir avec la constitution de chaque gouvernement, les moeurs, le climat, la réligion, le commerce, &c. Geneva: Barrillot & fils, [1748]

2 volumes, 4to (248 x 190mm.), half-titles, woodcut vignettes on title-pages, woodcut tail-pieces, contemporary calf, spines gilt in compartments, lacking 2 errata leaves in volume 1 (as often), some light spotting and discoloration, worming in margins of last 120 pages of volume 1, early ownership inscriptions on title-pages deleted, joints and corners repaired

Provenance

William Lapp, signature on title-pages, member of a mercantile family of Bandon, near Cork; Queen's College, Cork, library stamps on title-pages and elsewhere, and bookplate

Literature

PMM 197; Tchemerzine iv 929; Kress 4920; Goldsmiths 8375

Catalogue Note

first edition of Montesquieu's greatest work, in which he discusses law, forms and means of government, taxation, the effect of climate on national character, economics and religion. "It is an always original survey which is neither doctrinaire, visionary, eccentric, nor over-systematic... the scheme that emerges of a liberal benevolent monarchy limited by safeguards on individual liberty was to prove immensely influential" (PMM).