Heading: (France)
Author: Sieyes, Abbé
Title: Préliminaire de la Constitution Françoise. Reconnoisance et Exposition Raisonne Des Droits de l'Homme & du Citoyen
Place Published: [Paris]
Publisher:[Chez Baudouin, Imprimeur de l'Assemléeb [sic] Nationale]
Date Published: 1789
Description: 51 pp. 20x12 cm (8x4¾"), later half leather & cloth.An early printing of the French constitution, containing the "Rights of Man," published mid-August 1789, with 42 articles in the expanding list of rights, later pared down to 17 in the final version adopted by the National Constituent Assembly on the 26 of August 1789. The "Rights of Man" published in this book are the first known "Rights of Man" to be printed anywhere in the world. The book also contains one of the early printed drafts of the French Constitution (important in and of itself), published only weeks before the final draft of the French Constitution was issued. A copy of this edition sold at Christies in Paris in the early 1990s for $1,000 Euros, well over the $300 Euro estimate, according to a specialist at Christies. A highly significant document.

About four-fifths of spine strip not attached, portions of it laid in loose at flyleaves; early collector's rubberstamps to title and a few places within; soiling and discoloration to contents; good condition.