Nakaz Eja Imperatorskago Velicestva Ekateriny Vtoryja Samoderzicy...
The Last Edition of the Nakaz Published in the Nineteenth Century Catherine II [1762-1796], Empress of Russia. Bezgin, Il'ia Grigor'evich, Editor. Nakaz Eja Imperatorskago Velicestva Ekateriny Vtoryja Samoderzicy Vserossijskija Dannyj Kommissii o Socinenii Proekta Novago Ulozenija. St. Petersburg: Izd. L.F. Pantelieeva, 1893. 53, 201 pp. Text of Nakaz in Russian with parallel French translation. Original printed stiff wrappers bound into recent quarter calf over cloth, gilt fillets and lettering piece to spine, endpapers renewed. Gilding mostly rubbed away from lettering piece, light soiling and edgewear to wrappers, moderate toning to text, faint dampspotting to a few leaves. Small early owner label to front free endpaper, internally clean. $1,750. * The last edition published in the nineteenth century. The Nakaz, or Instruction, is a statement of legal principles written by Catherine II between 1764 and 1766. It was among her most ambitious and significant undertakings. Infused with the ideas of the French Enlightenment, and copied mostly from the work of Voltaire, Montesquieu and Beccaria, it was compiled as a guide for the All- Russia Legislative Commission convened by the Empress in 1767 to create a new code to replace the 1649 Muscovite Code. Revised in consultation with Frederick the Great and Voltaire, the Instruction proclaimed the equality of all men before the law and denounced torture and the death penalty. Unfortunately, her proposed code was never completed. The first two editions, one with parallel texts in Russian and German, were published in 1767. OCLC locates 1 copy in a North American law library (Columbia). Another copy located at Harvard Law School. Butler, The Nakaz of Catherine the Great 526 (Entry 18).
Price: $1,750.00
Book number 65342