Laudatio Hugonis Grotii

8vo (225x135 mm). [2], VIII, 88 pp. Engraved portrait of Grotius by Reinier Vinkeles in oval window on title page. The title page, printed on heavier paper with horizontal chainlines, served probably originally as the upper cover. The half title page that follows, reads: Laudatio Hugonis Grotiim ad Academiae Regiae quae historiarum, eloquentiae, antiquitatis, atque inscriptionum studiis ac laude Holmiae apud Sueones floret moderatores. Auctore Henrico Constantino Cras: cui palma adjudicata est mense Aprili anni MDCCXCVI. Includes bibliographical references. Original cardboards. A nearly perfect copy, uncut and partly unopened.
First edition of this eulogy of the great Dutch philosopher and jurist Hugo Grotius (Hugo de Groot, 1583-1645), a giant figure in the fields of political theory and law during the 17th century. His two major works, Mare Liberum (‘The Free Seas', 1609) and De jure belli ac pacis (‘On the Law of War and Peace', 1625) laid the foundations for international law.
Hendrik Constantijn Cras was a Dutch jurist and city librarian of Amsterdam. He studied law in Leiden. For nearly fifty years, beginning in 1771, he taught all fields of legal study at the Athenaeum Illustre in Amsterdam. In 1798, Cras rose to prominence as the leading member of a commission charged with drafting national codes of law (cf. C.J.H. Jansen, Cras, Hendrik Constantijn, in: “Juristen: ein biographisches Lexikon; von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert”, M. Stolleis, ed., Munich, 2001, p. 150).