8vo. 2 volumes: (VI, including a plate),64,395; (VI, including a folding plate),386,(16, stock list of the publisher Michaud) p. Calf 20.5 cm (Ref: Schweiger 1,210; Graesse 2,177; cf. Dibdin 1,463/64; Brunet 2,56) (Details: Nice binding. Back gilt and with a red and a black morocco shield. Boards with elaborately gilt borders. Edges of the boards and the inside dentelles gilt. Endpapers marbled. The plate in volume 1 depicts a group of discussing philosophers; the folding plate shows parts of the palimpsest. Introductions, Latin text with facing French translation, and the notes, 'concinnatae' of Angelo Mai) (Condition: Cover slightly worn at the extremities. Some slight foxing) (Note: 'De re publica' is a dialogue on Roman politics by the Roman politician and author Cicero. The discussion, divided in six books and written between 54 and 51 B.C., occupies three days, is between the younger Scipio Africanus and several other members of his circle. Its subject is not, as in Plato's Republic, justice as illustrated by the perfect state, but the state itself, its best constitution and government. Large parts of the text are missing. From the 4th and the 5th book only minor fragments survived. It is clear that Cicero's ideal republic is an idealized Rome, 'guided by the wisdom and patrotism of her leading men'. (H.J. Rose, 'A handbook of Latin literature', London 1967, p. 185) § The Middle Ages and the Renaissance knew only a part of the 6th book, the 'Somnium Scipionis', or 'Scipio's dream'. This fragment survived because it was the subject of a commentary by the late antique author Macrobius, who wrote 'Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis', or 'Commentary on the Dream of Scipio'. This commentary was one of the most important sources for Platonism in the Latin West during the Middle Ages. Greater parts of this dialogue were discovered on a palimpsest of a manuscript of Augustine in the Vatican Library (Vat Lat 5757) in 1819 by Cardinal Angelo Mai, who published the 'editio princeps' of the remains in Rome in 1822, with some help of the Prussian scholar B.G. Niebuhr. (Sandys 3,80) In the following years a host of editions of the text, commentaries and translations were published, especially in Germany. § Abel-François Villemain, 1790 - 1870, like Cicero a politician and author, was appointed professor of eloquence at the Sorbonne) (Provenance: Small label on both front pastedowns: Mr. Feijens. On the internet we found a jurist Mr. Georgius Lambertus Feijens, who signed up as lawyer/sollicitor at the 'Provinciaal Gerechtshof van Friesland' on 13-02-1816. In 1834 he was President of the Bar Council at the 'Gerechtshof' in Leeuwarden) (Collation: pi2, plate, a-d8, 1-24(8), 25(6); pi2, plate, 1-23(8), 24(2), 25(8) (minus blank leaf 25/8), chi8) (Photographs on request)