De la Législation, ou Principes des Loix

Lausanne: Société Typographique, 1777. Second Edition. Two volumes in one; small 12mo (16cm.); slightly later paper-covered boards, manuscript private library spine labels, all edges speckled red; [2],viii,248; [2],iv,250pp. Spine a bit sunned, corners bumped, light spotting to boards, tiny rubberstamps of a Donaueschingen library to both title page versos, else a Near Fine, internally fresh copy, half titles present. First published one year prior, in 1776.

Both a critique and history of European inequality by the French philosopher deeply influenced by the works of John Locke. Described as an "avant-garde thinker of utopian socialism" (Sophus Reinert and Steven Kaplan, eds., "The Economic Turn" (2019), p. [339]), the Abbé de Mably (1709-1785) roundly rejected any institution that could reduce the well-being of one in favor of another, among these the concept of private property. Indeed, in Chapter IV in the first volume states that it be necessary for legislation to "turn all its forces against avarice and ambition" (p. 96, our translation). A life-long friend of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the underlining theme of the work consistently circles back to the concept of "Nature," in this case self-preservation at present undermined by the state of society.