"THE MOST CITED POLITICAL THINKER AT THE TIME OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION": FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF MONTESQUIEU'S REFLECTIONS ON… THE ROMANS, 1734—VIEWED AS "ONE OF HIS TWO GREAT WORKS" WITH SPIRIT OF THE LAWS, IN CONTEMPORARY CALF BOARDS

(MONTESQUIEU, Charles Louis de Secondat). Reflections On the Causes of the Grandeur and Declension of the Romans. By the Author of the Persian Letters. London: W. Innys and R. Manby… C. Davis… A. Lyon, 1734. Small octavo (4 by 6-3/4 inches), contemporary full brown gilt-ruled calf rebacked and recornered with original spine laid down, raised bands, original russet morocco spine label; pp. (i-ii) iii-iv, (1) 2-265 (19).

First edition in English, issued same year as the French first edition, of Montesquieu's Reflections, also known as Considerations—"a striking first formulation of Montesquieu's treatment of politics in free society… a minor masterpiece"—foreshadowing themes of Spirit of the Laws (1748), a signal influence on Gibbon, de Tocqueville and James Madison, in contemporary calf boards.

"The most cited political thinker at the time of the American Revolution was Montesquieu" (Newton, Path to Tyranny, 217). To James Madison, particularly in his Federalist essays, Montesquieu was "the oracle who is always consulted" (Banning, 224). Montesquieu's Reflections on… the Romans, commonly known and here cited as Considerations, is viewed with Spirit of the Laws as "one of his two great works… Considerations contains a striking first formulation of Montesquieu's treatment of politics in a free society… Gibbon wrote that his own work on Roman history had been inspired by Considerations. More than a century later it was de Tocqueville's first model for what was to become the l'Ancien Regime et la Revolution" (Richter, Political Theory, 5-16, 53). Published at a pivotal point between his Persian Letters (1721) and Spirit of the Laws (1748), it "foreshadows in some respects the themes of Spirit of the Laws… [and] must be judged a minor masterpiece. There is no work on Roman history of comparable length, written before its author's time or since, that is as penetrating" (Rahe, Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty, 19).

Montesquieu "was arguably the first to fully articulate the distinction between ancient and modern republicanism… he begins his Considerations in the manner of Machiavelli—by depicting the early Roman republic as a martial polity intent on conquest and expansion" (Rahe, Soft Despotism, ix). "Montesquieu's Rome is a machine designed for conquest—and nothing more… Cicero's analysis of the true greatness of the imperial city (Offices) is simply ignored, and Montesquieu nowhere quotes Virgil's celebrated juxtaposition of classical Greece with Rome… Montesquieu's aim is to rob Rome of its allure… To this end, he insists on the significance of a point that Machiavelli had readily conceded: that the Romans' loss of liberty was by no means accident—that it was a natural consequence of the project of conquest which they undertook. As Montesquieu puts it, 'the greatness of the Empire destroyed the Republic'" (Rahe, Montesquieu, 33- 36). Preceded by the same year's French first edition also issued anonymously, published in Holland. "The anonymous English translator… appears to have worked from the uncorrected or partially corrected page proofs, if not from a manuscript earlier yet… By early August 1734, just a few weeks after the book had been approved for distribution and publication in France, Montesquieu had in hand copies of the translation" (Rahe, 29). With rear errata page. ESTC T139718. See Encyclopedia of Philosophy V:370; Kress 4191; Lowndes 1590. Contemporary owner signature dated 1737; early notations to front pastedown. Small later inkstamp.

Text generally fresh with light scattered foxing, mild edge-wear and rubbing to boards. An extremely good copy, desirable in contemporary calf boards.