Volume collated 4to, 32.5 x 21 cm, later full calf, blind-tooled boards, sunned, raised bands and gilt lettering to spine. bound without the additional engraved title-page sometimes present; title printed in black and red, woodcut headpieces and initials; a little foxing (mostly marginal) throughout, title lightly dust stained with slight chipping at extremities, minor marginal worming to early leaves (b₃-I₄), paper flaw to outer margin of E₁; contemporary English ownership inscription of George Legh to the title, a handful of manuscript corrections to text and annotations to index.

Title-page (double frame, red and black, tall ‘s’): THE MOST EXCELLENT | HUGO GROTIUS | HIS THREE | BOOKS | Treating of the | RIGHTS | OF | WAR & PEACE. | In the First is handled, | Whether any War be Just. | In the Second is shewed , | The Causes of War, both Just and Uujust (sic). | In the Third is declared , | What in War is Lawful ; that is, | Unpunishable. | With the Annotations digested into the | Body of every Chapter. | — | Translated into ENGLISH by | William Evats, B. D. | — | LONDON, | Printed by M. W. for Thomas Basset at the George in Fleetstreet, and | Ralph Smith at the Bible under the Piazza of the Royal Exchange | in Cornhill. M DC LXXXII. ||

Collation: A⁴ a-b⁴ c³ B-Z⁴ 2A-2D⁴ 2E⁶ 3A-3Z⁴ 4A-4D⁴ 4E-4L²; total 247 leaves as called for; lacking engraved title-page.

Pagination: [4] i-xxi [5] 1-220 (text continuous) 361-572 [573] [574 blank] [30 table]; total 494 pages.

Seller’s note: First edition of the first complete English translation, following Barksdale’s abridgement, of Grotius’s landmark work of political philosophy, the first treatise on international law. First published in Latin in 1625, Grotius’s De iure belli ac pacis “became the basic manual for both the theoretical justification and the entire practice of the international law of war as well as of international law in general for the whole period of the ancien régime in Europe” [Duchhardt, p. 288]. “It would be hard to imagine any work more central to the intellectual world of the Enlightenment … [By] the time of the post-First World War settlement, Grotius was regarded almost exclusively as the founder of modern civilized interstate relations, and as a suitable tutelary presence for the new Peace Palace at The Hague … [In] some ways that was to radically misunderstand Grotius’s views on war; he was in fact much more of an apologist for aggression and violence than many of his more genuinely innovative qualities of his moral theory, qualities that entitle him to an essential place in the history of political theory …” [Tuck, pp. xi-xii].

Contributors:

Hugo Grotius (Dutch, 1583 – 1645) – author.

William Evats (British, c.1606 – 1677) – translator.

Margaret White (British, fl. 1678 – 1683) – printer.

Thomas Bassett (British, fl. c. 1659 – 1693) – publisher/bookseller.

Ralph Smith (British, fl. 1642 – 1684) – publisher/bookseller.