John Locke - Du Gouvernement Civil, où l'on traitte de l'origine - 1691

Locke, John

The Civil Government, which discusses the origin, foundations, nature, power, and purposes of political societies. Translated from the English.

Amsterdam, Abraham Wolfgang, 1691. 12mo, pp. [xii], 321, [1 blank, and bound without the last blank leaf]; woodcut printer's device on the title, a few pages slightly browned or spotted, but very fine copy, in mottled calf of the period, with a gilt tooled spine, red morocco title piece; defective headbands, slightly worn corners; first ownership inscriptions on the title page.

First French edition of Locke's Essay concerning the true original extent and end of civil government, one of the most famous and influential works in the history of liberalism, which initially appeared the previous year as the second of the Two Treatises of Government (1690). The anonymous translator is generally considered to be David Mazel, a 'Huguenot pastor living in Holland' (Yolton); 'it is surprising to note that all translations of this work until 1800 concerned only the second treatise' (ibid.). It is largely thanks to his translation that Locke reached a broad readership on the continent. Mazel's translation provided the French-speaking audience with an anti-absoluteist critique of the French regime, and emanated from the circle of Locke's closest friends. It was through a handful of French-speaking Protestants that the continental public became acquainted with Locke's arguments and came to know him not only as a theoretical philosopher but also as a political theorist—as the author, not of the Two Treatises, but of 'Du Gouvernement' (S.-J. Savonius, 'Locke en français: Le Du Gouvernement Civil de 1691 et ses lecteurs'. The Historical Journal 47:1, March 2004).