WICQUEFORT Abraham de - Mémoires touchant les ambassadeurs et les ministres publics. Première partie - 1679

Memoirs touching ambassadors and public ministers, Abraham de WICQUEFORT. Part One. Cologne, at Pierre du Marteau, 1679. 1 vol. of 2. Frontispiece + 447 pages + XLIII pages. Small octavo (8x13.6 cm) bound in full parchment with small flaps, smooth spine with handwritten title.

In his memoirs written in Holland where he found refuge, Wicquefort, a diplomat and intellectual, takes up the pen to defend himself against accusations of high treason that earned him a life imprisonment sentence. This revised edition (the original edition dating from 1676) is the first signed with his name; the original edition had been published under the name "L.M.P." (the prisoner-minister).

This treatise constitutes one of the early modern attempts to codify the law of nations, the diplomatic privileges and immunities of ambassadors. This work would serve as the basis for his later masterwork: The Ambassador and His Functions (1681).

Interior clean. Good copy.