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8vo (210 × 120 mm.), pp. xii, 290, [2] (errata). Very light marginal offsetting or spotting to title and a few subsequent leaves. Contemporary mottled calf, spine with 5 raised bands between gilt rules, red morocco label. Very slight chips to head and foot of spine, upper joint cracked. Early engraved armorial bookplate of George Manners. A very good copy.
First edition of this influential Scottish Enlightenment contribution to the debate over the origins of English liberty. “Published in 1768, the work summarizes the history of English liberty from the time of the first Britons to the Norman invasion. Implicit in this whiggish perspective was a challenge to David Hume, whose History of England had put a relativist historiographical agenda at the forefront of the debate on the nature of British liberty. In this ambitious attempt to synthesize the conjectural method of such writers as Kames and Adam Ferguson with the controversial approach of his relative Thomas Ruddiman, Stuart applied the legal scholarship of Montesquieu and John Dalrymple” (Zachs, Oxford DNB). The title-page bears a quote from Montesquieu on the origins of the British political system concluding “Ce beau systême a été trouvé dans le bois.”
£850.00
(equal to approx. US$1344.43* or €1053.54* for 19 May 2012)
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