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37 Grotiana (n.s.) 1 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/grotia37 and id is 1 raw text is: 


                       GROTIANA  37 (2016) 1-15

                                                              GROTIANA
BRILL                                                          brill.com/grot



The   Restless Mind and the Living Text
The First Edition of Grotius's De iure belli ac pacis

        Douglasj  Osler
     Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt a/M.
        osler@rg.mpg.de



        Abstract

A reconstruction is attempted of the printing process of the first edition of De lure belli
ac pacis, and of the circumstances thereof, on the basis of a study of various copies
still extant. It is argued that a distinction should be drawn between variations that re-
sulted from a hurried printing process and those that were interventions by the author
himself.



        Keywords

book history - Hugo Grotius - Frankfurt book fair - De iure belli ac pacis



The first edition of the world's greatest lawbook, the De iure beth ac pacis of
Hugo  Grotius, published at Paris in 1625 by the eminent French printer Nico-
laus Buon, is found in two clearly distinct states. These two states resulted
from the decision to permit some  copies of the work to filter through to the
book market  before printing was complete. Printing of the book had begun in
mid November   1624,1 but two months later, in mid January 1625, only limited
progress had been made.2 Soon  thereafter, however, the job started to pick up
pace, for the printers were now working to a deadline: the spring book fair in
Frankfurt am  Main, the most propitious occasion on which  to launch a new


I  Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius, ed. by P.C. Molhuysen et al., 17 vols (The Hague: Nijhoff,
   1928-2001) [hereafter Bw], 11-930 (8 November 1624, toJ. de Groot). Grotius writes that print-
   ing was to begin within a quadtriduum or four days.
2  BW II.939 (L7 January 1625, to J. de Groot).


© KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2016  DOI 10.1163/18760759-03700002

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