GROTIUS, Hugo. De Iure belli ac pacis libri tres in quibus jus naturæ & gentium, item juris publici præcipua explicantur. Editio nova cum annotatis Auctoris, ex postrema ejus ante obitum cura. Accesserunt annotata in Epistolam Pauli ad Philemonem, et Dissertatio de Mari libero.Amstelaedami: apud Joannem Blaeu, 1670

8vo, 200x115 mm; quarter calf binding, gilt title and ornaments on spine with 5 ribs. Title page in red and black ink and printer’s mark on title page (Armillar sphere between Time and Hercules). Frontispiece engraved on copper by Romeyn de Hooghe, with the title: Hug. Grotii de iure belli ac pacis libri tres. Portrait of the author at full page engraved on copper. On leaves a2 there is the dedication of Grotius to King Ludovico XIII. Pp. [6], XVIII, 620, [110], 28, [2]. Woodcut initial letters and end pieces. Stamp of extinct library on title page. Marginalia. Good specimen

Beautiful Amsterdam edition by Grotius during his Parisian exile. A very important work of modern natural right, Grotius refutes the theological foundations of state authority, in an era torn apart by religious wars, seeking instead to lay it on rational and natural principles. One of the most important philosophical theories made by the Dutch was that of the "social contract", which takes place when the state of nature becomes impractical, violent and insecure for the increase of needs, for the diminution of available wealth and for the birth of selfish instincts. In this case men, in view of a common utility, pass from the state of nature to the civil status by transferring to a sovereign, by a pact, the power to coercively observe the sphere of interests of each individual, to keep the order social and peace. Public law, in the idea of Grotius, becomes a deductive science similar to mathematics. (See Sapori, 1465)