Catherine ii

1770 · 1845 — <p><strong>A rare example of Russian text of the Enlightenment --- "The best and most luxurious edition" of Catherine's famous 'Great Instructions' </strong>such described by Count M.A. Korf then director of the Imperial Library. First published and "signé de la propre main de Sa Majesté Impériale" in 1768; this edition however is the only in several languages and illustrated.</p><p>These instructions were "largely compiled and adapted by Catherine personally from the texts of Montesquieu and Beccaria. Although the project was never brought to fruition the impulse behind it stands as one of the nobler concepts of Catherine's reign" Fekula 2013 for a later edition.</p><p>A major document of the Enlightenment it condemned torture and capital punishment and endorsed such principles as the equality of all before the law.</p><p>The illustration consists of two detailed symbolic engravings each repeated once by Roth d. 1798 an engraver from Nuremberg who mostly worked in Russia.</p><p><strong>"The most magnificent and desirable of the more than 40 editions of the Nakaz"</strong> Widener <strong>"one of the most remarkable political treatises ever compiled and published by a reigning sovereign in modern times"</strong> I. de Madariaga Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great 1981 p. 151. Some great scholarly publications have taken place among these numerous editions especially published in St. Petersburg in 1893 using the French text from this edition and 1907 as well as the more recent The Nakaz of Catherine the Great: Collected Texts 2010 with a bibliography of the 43 editions edited by Butler and Tomsinov.</p><p><strong>Physical description:</strong> Quarto 26.3 x 20.5 cm. Title pages in Russian Latin German and French 403 pp. with 4 allegorical head- and tailpieces engraved by Christopher Melhior Roth after Jacob Shtelin. Contemporary full Russian calf spine with raised bands stamped in bling label lettered in Russian patterned endpapers red edges.</p><p><strong>Condition</strong>: Binding covered with clear adhesive film dampstain to back cover; very occasional light spotting otherwise a lovely attractive example.</p><p><strong>Bibliography</strong>: Drage 208; Fekula 2013; Sopikov 6456 'best edition'; SK 2151; Widener M. Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library on their copy exhibited in 2012.</p> Imp. Akad. Nauk, Skt. Peterburg, hardcover