Hebrew Printing in Sabbioneta 1 AFFO, Ireneo - Schulz-Falster Rare ...

First edition of Maurice Joly’s political satire against Napoleon III. Machiavelli
and Montesquieu enter into a dialectic argument about the nature of
power, Machiavelli supports the power of the state as ultimate authority,
Montesquieu oVers the contrasting liberal thesis. The book was banned by
the Napoleonic government and conWscated, which accounts for its rarity.
The work took on a more sinister second life, when it was plagiarised and
its ‘worldwide conspiracy’ motif was used in anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist
propaganda in the Russian The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, (published
1903), which alleged a Zionist plot to achieve world domination.
Uncommon, for further details on the Protocols, see H. L. Rubinstein, The Jews in
the Modern World, and the Jewish Encyclopedia.
St. Petersburg Printing
62 JOVELLANOS, Gaspar Melchior. L’Identité de l’Intérêt
général avec l’Intérêt individuel, ou la libre action de l’Intérêt
individual est la vraie source des richesses des nations. Principe
exposé dans le rapport sur un projet de loi agraire, adressé au conseil
supreme de Castille au nom de la société économique de Madrid. St.
Petersburg, Drechsler, 1806. £750
8vo, pp. [x], 282, printed on thick paper; contemporary full calf, spine
decorated in gilt, gilt-lettered spine label, sides with gilt rule; a.e.g.;
extremities a little rubbed, but a Wne copy.
First edition in French of this landmark in liberal reform in the Spanish enlightenment.
First published in 1795, Jovellanos’ ‘Informe ... en el expediente
de la ley agraria’, is translated by Rouvier and dedicated to the Russian minister
of the Interior, count de Kotchoubey. Together with Campomanes,
Jovellanos was the main exponent of Spanish economic Liberalism, a heroic
statesman dedicated to progressive change in a conservative society.
The present work is in fact a report made to the Supreme Council of
Castille for the Sociedad Económica of Madrid. ‘The document, still a classic
in Spain, contains a clear and methodical exposition of the obstacles to
Spanish agricultural progress, obstacles including not only the nature of
the soil and adverse climatic conditions, but also existing law and custom.
To remedy the situation he advocated irrigation and improved roads, the
break up, for sale or lease, of the commons and waste lands, the abrogation
of the privileges of the Mesta and the education of the peasants. He
favoured free trade in grain within the country but objected to its export
and believed that its importation should be limited.’ (IESS). Jovellanos was
strongly inXuenced by Adam Smith whom he cites here, and in fact he
translated parts of the Wealth of Nations. ‘Jovellanos wrote boldly and extensively
on other questions of economic policy but his fame as an economist
rests largely on his treatise on agrarian reform’ (Robert Sydney Smith, The
Wealth of Nations in Spain and Hispanic America 1780–1830, JPE 65, no.
2, pp. 106–108).
susanne schulz-falster rare books