MABLY, ABBÉ DE.

Des principes des négociations, pour servir d'introduction au droit public de l'Europe, fondé sur les traités.

A La Haie, 1757. 12mo. Very nice marbled full calf with richly gilt spine. Gilt title-label to spine. All edges of boards gilt (gilding a bit worn). Marbled edges. Front and back end-papers with a few later annotations. Otherwise a very nice and clean copy. VIII, 278 pp.

Rare first edition of one of Mably's most important works. "His principes des negociations, which was to serve as an introduction to the Droit publique [...] was a courageous attack on the foreign policies of the European powers, and a plea for more rational and honest methods, not only for the sake of justice and humanity, but because they are actually profitable." (Whitfield, Ernest A., Gabriel Bonnot De Mably, New York, 1969).

Gabriel Bonnot de Mably ( 1709 - 1785), was a French philosopher and politician. He was one of the 18th century's most popular writers but largely passed into obscurity in the 20th century. His works contributed to the later concepts of both communism and republicanism. Some have enrolled him in the French School of Utopianism: "Here also is the beginning of the French School of Utopian Communism properly so called. The Abbé de Mably (1709-1785) merits attention for his singularly clear exposition of the fundamental doctrine of equality: "The sentiment of equality if nothing else than sentiment of our dignity; men have become slaves by letting it grow feeble, and only by revivifying it will they become free"." (Catlin, George. A History of Political Philosophers, London, 1950).
More recent research suggests another approach to Mably's thinking: "Mably should be seen as neither a proto-socialist nor a reactionary thinker, but as a republican - a classical republican, in fact, whose writing represents a later Gallic contribution to the political tradition founded by Machiavelli and Harrington. He is not only interesting as the personification of the revolutionary spirit and as a level-headed reformer, but because he formulated principles which have since been either accepted or re-discovered." (Wright J. History of Political Thought, Volume 13, Number 3, 1992 , pp. 391-415).

Order-nr.: 42375