Book - De l'esprit de lois
Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de. De l'esprit de lois ... édition stéréotype, d'après de procédé de Firmin Didot. A Paris, De l'Imprimerie et de la Fonderie Stéreotypes de Pierre Didot l'aîne, et de Firmin Didot. 1816.
1816 (Date published)
Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de. De l'esprit de lois ... édition stéréotype, d'après de procédé de Firmin Didot. A Paris, De l'Imprimerie et de la Fonderie Stéreotypes de Pierre Didot l'aîne, et de Firmin Didot. 1816.
18mo (132 x 83mm), four vols (of five) pp. 290; 246; 264; 266, all with half-titles. Bound in contemporary speckled sheep, gilt with red morocco lettering-pieces to spines, marbled edges and endpapers, blue ribbon markers. Early ownership inscription of George E. Hand to front free endpaper verso, along with a later one by Daniel Hand: "This book belonged to Geo. E. Hand [of] Detroit Mich and is presented to the "Hand Academy" of Madison Conn by his brother Daniel Hand April 1890.
Volumes two through five only of a five-volume edition by Didot of Montesquieu's De l'esprit de lois, originally published in 1748. It was enormously popular and exciting in his time, and was even banned by the Roman Catholic Church for its heretical views. It continued to influence leaders and thinkers through the subsequent decades, including the Founding Fathers of the United States. It would make sense, then, that this copy was owned and read by Judge George E. Hand in Detroit, who would have been a scholar of law and political thought. After his death, this copy made its way to his brother Daniel, who gifted it in turn to the Hand Academy.
18mo (132 x 83mm), four vols (of five) pp. 290; 246; 264; 266, all with half-titles. Bound in contemporary speckled sheep, gilt with red morocco lettering-pieces to spines, marbled edges and endpapers, blue ribbon markers. Early ownership inscription of George E. Hand to front free endpaper verso, along with a later one by Daniel Hand: "This book belonged to Geo. E. Hand [of] Detroit Mich and is presented to the "Hand Academy" of Madison Conn by his brother Daniel Hand April 1890.
Volumes two through five only of a five-volume edition by Didot of Montesquieu's De l'esprit de lois, originally published in 1748. It was enormously popular and exciting in his time, and was even banned by the Roman Catholic Church for its heretical views. It continued to influence leaders and thinkers through the subsequent decades, including the Founding Fathers of the United States. It would make sense, then, that this copy was owned and read by Judge George E. Hand in Detroit, who would have been a scholar of law and political thought. After his death, this copy made its way to his brother Daniel, who gifted it in turn to the Hand Academy.
B2021.44