Auction 356 Old & Rare Books - History of Law
1044

PUFENDORF, S. v. De Jure Naturæ et Gentium ll. VIII. Lund, A. Junghans, 1672. (20), 1227, (9) pp. W. ti. printed in red & black, woodcut printer's mark on ti-p. 4°. Cont. speckled cf. w. raised bands, richly dec. gilt back, brown cf. label & red speckled edges. (Top of spine a bit dam., upper joint split, small stamp & previous owner mark on ti., else a fine and clean copy).

First edition of one of the fundamental works on natural law. This work, much admired by John Locke, argues that civil society is established on a contract between individual wills, with sovereignty in the hands of a benevolent ruler. Pufendorf published in Lund where he held the chair in Natural Law, before moving to Berlin in 1688 to become historiographer to the elector of Brandenburg. 'De jure naturae' develops the principles introduced by Grotius and Hobbes about the innate necessities of human nature, but unlike Hobbes, Pufendorf argued that peace, not war, is the state of nature, and suggests that law should not be restricted only to Christendom. - Stintzing-Landsberg III,1, 11-23; Roberts 249.

€ 2600

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