G. Schönborner - Politicorum - 1642

Georgius Schönborner (Georg Schönborner, 1579-1637). Politicorum libri septem.
Editio ad ipsius authoris emendatum exemplar nunc primum vulgata.
Amsterdam: Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1642.

Format: small 12° (14 x 7.8 cm).
Pages: [74], 542, [32] pp. of index + 1 folding plate.
Contemporary binding, with signs of use.

Encyclopedic work of political science in seven books, among the most complete and systematic of the early seventeenth century. Schönborner (Silesian jurist, chancellor and imperial adviser) treats the constitution of the State, administration, magistracies, citizens’ education, military forces, finances, alliances, war and peace, drawing on classical sources (Aristotle, Cicero, Livy, etc.), patristic and modern (Bodin, etc.). Includes a description of the status and orders of the Holy Roman Empire. The engraved title page and the genealogical/kinship table (visible in the photos) enrich the edition. It is a reference text for the study of politics as the art of governing in the humanistic–baroque period.

This is the first Elzevir edition (the most sought-after and praised compared with the reissues of 1650 and 1660, which have fewer preliminary pages). Elzevir small-format editions are among the most appreciated by collectors for typographic quality, elegant type, and portability.

Rare item on the antiquarian market, especially complete with the folding plate and in the Elzevir princeps edition of 1642.

Similar copies occasionally appear at international auctions with significant valuations.

Widespread signs of worming throughout the work, as described, but overall intact and legible. Typical for a highly used seventeenth-century volume.

Representative specimen of Elzevirian production and of the political literature of the German-imperial Seicento. Ideal for collections of Res Publica, European public law, or Elzevir prints.