Pufendorf, Samuel von
De jure naturae et gentium libri octo
£3,276
Auction: 05 February 2025 from 10:00 GMT
Description
Lund: sumtibus Adami Junghans imprimebat Vitus Haberegger, 1672. First edition, 4to (21 x 16.8cm), [20] 1227 [9] pp., contemporary vellum, with manuscript spine-title, title-page printed in red and black with printer's woodcut device, front inner hinge gone, title-page with two holes from erasure of ownership inscription and small spill-burn to head
Provenance
From the library of the Murrays of Dollerie, Crieff, Perthshire. Ownership inscription of Anthony Murray to title-page and engraved bookplate (Murray Esqr of Crieff) to front pastedown.
Footnote
Known in English as Of the Law of Nature and of Nations, Pufendorf's great treatise on natural law was inspired by Grotius's De Jure Belli ac Pacis and provided a thorough critique of Hobbesian social theory. It proved hugely influential both in Europe and the New World, finding admirers in Locke and Rousseau, and becoming ‘part of the intellectual inheritance of the American Revolution and constitutionalism’ (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).