Catalogue Number 12 - Susanne Schulz-Falster

78 [SERFDOM.] Verkauf- und Kauf-Contract des Gesindes.
n.p., n.d. [Mitau, after 1863]. £150
8vo, pp. 23, 17 blank; contemporary cloth-backed marbled boards.
A blank contract form for the sale of farm serfs as part of the sale of agricultural
estates in the Baltic state Kurland, at the time under German rule. The
form is bilingual in German and Latvian. Reference is being made to legal
reforms of 1863, which generally allowed the local population the purchase
of land. Special banks were formed to help Wnance the transactions.
The Nationalisation of Land
79 [SICILY.] Memoria relativa allo Scioglimento della
Promiscuità delle Proprietà nella Regia Sila del Direttor Generale de
Ponti e Strade, delle Acque e Foreste, e della Caccia. Napoli,
Stamperia Reale, 1828. £650
Large 4to, pp. 68; contemporary grey wrappers.
First and only edition of this interesting document outlining the reorganisation
of the mixed ownership of land in the region of Sila in Calabria, Italy.
The Sila, a heavily wooded, mountainous area had always been state property,
and after the land reforms of the enlightenment even this last vestige of
the old feudal order was to be abolished. A land reform and transfer of the
land of the Sila into private hands had been decreed in 1816. This report
details both the history of its state ownership, allowing for some civic use,
and the developments as more and more of the land was part privatised.
Interestingly the author makes some comment on the importance of the
preservation of the woodland, and voices environmental concerns.
Rare, not found in RLIN or OCLC.
First Continental Edition
80 SMITH, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations. Vol. I. [–Vol. IV.]. Basil, J. J. Tourneisen and J.
L. Legrand. 1791. £1950
Four volumes, 8vo, pp. viii, 406; vi, 344, [1] advertisement; [iv], 358,
[5] appendix; vi, 374, [74] index; contemporary buV boards, spines
ruled in gilt, contrasting gilt-lettered label and numbering piece, spines
a little chipped, shelf labels removed from head of spine; contemporary
ownership inscription of Georg von Schele, Hannover, 1794 to front
free endpapers, light stain from removed book-plates to front pastedown;
a very clean and crisp set.
First continental edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, ‘the Wrst and
greatest classic of modern economic thought (PMM). The Wealth of Nations
did more than any other book on economics in the West to create the
subject of political economy and to develop it into an autonomous disci-
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue twelve
pline. It was the ‘Wrst major expression of the freedom of the individual’. It
developed the theory of laissez-faire and the right of individuals and states
to carry on their economic activity unimpeded. Smith ends with a history of
economic development, and virtually demolishes the basis of the mercantile
system. There are some prophetic comments on the limits of economic control.
Despite the fact that a number of translations had already been published,
this Basle edition contributed enormously to the spread of Adam Smith’s
ideas on the Continent. The provenance of this particular copy conWrms
this, as it comes from the library of the Hanoverian jurist and conservative
politician Georg von Schele (1771–1844), who served as a member of parliament
in Hanover’s upper chamber.
Goldsmiths’–Kress 14613; Vanderblue p. 20.
The First Good German Translation of Adam Smith
81 SMITH, Adam. Untersuchung über die Natur und die
Ursachen des Nationalreichthums... Aus dem Englischen der vierten
Ausgabe neu übersetzt. Erster Band [-Vierter Band]. Breslau, bey
Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn. 1794–96. £2500