GROTIUS, Hugo.

Annales et historiæ de rebus Belgicis.

Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1657. Folio (310 x 210 mm), pp. [xii], 569, [22], [1, blank], with an engraved portrait of Grotius (on p. [xii]); contemporary vellum; a little worn, head of spine chipped. First edition. Grotius began the Annales as a young man, when he was official historian of Holland, but the initial version, submitted in 1612, was not published, probably for politico-religious reasons. Nevertheless the book remained of abiding interest to him and he continued to revise it, but it had still failed to find a publisher on his death in 1645. It finally appeared in the present edition under the auspices of his sons.Recounting events in the Low Countries from the beginnings of the revolt in the 1560s until the truce between Spain and the emergent Dutch republic in 1609, the Annales reflects Grotius’s identification of a right to rebel, which he articulated in De iure belli ac pacis: ‘Grotius considered rebellion legal under natural law if the sovereign ruler “transgressed against the laws and the state”, “manifestly abandoned his governmental authority” or “showed himself [to be] the enemy of the whole people”. Grotius had been appointed as the official historiographer of the States of Holland in 1601 and his particular assignment was to describe, or rather, to justify, the Dutch uprising against the Spanish government. Unsurprisingly, he came to the conclusion that the Dutch republic, which was the product of this rebellion, had resulted from a revolt against tyranny and was therefore based on legitimate (natural law) grounds . . . . This historical study partly found expression in [his] Annales et historiæ’ (Janneke Nijman, ‘Leibniz’s theory of relative sovereignty and international legal personality’, IILJ Working Paper 2004/2, History and Theory of International Law Series, p. 23). ‘The style of the book is clear and concise, and modeled on that of the great Latin historian Tacitus. The reasoning is logical and strong, supported by quotations, aphorisms and notes – indicative of great familiarity with history, politics, and literature’ (Vreeland, Hugo Grotius p. 61). Besides domestic affairs the Annales ‘chronicle the rise of the Dutch overseas empire and analyse its economic base’ (Tuck, in CHPT p. 503), including, therefore, material on the formation of the Dutch East and West India Companies and Dutch activities beyond Europe.Inscribed on the front free-endpaper of this copy is a Latin epigram on Hugo Grotius with a subscription ascribing it to his son, Cornelius, and recording (apparently) the gift of the book, The Hague, December 1657. There are also two subsequent ownership inscriptions, both English, of J. Naylor, 1735, and T[homas] Kerrich, 1800, the Cambridge antiquary (see Oxford DNB).Alden 657/58; Meulen & Diermanse 741; Palau 109166.

• GBP 1,750.00 > Andere Währungen
• Bestellnummer: T2145

• Antiquariat: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)