- PUFENDORF (Samuel de). Le Droit de la nature et des gens, ou Système général des principes les plus importans de la morale, de la jurisprudence, et de la politique. Translated from the Latin by Jean Barbeyrac (...), with notes by the translator; & a preface which serves as an introduction to the whole work. New edition, revised again & increased considerably. Trévoux, Imprimerie de S.A.S., 1740, 3 vols. in 4°, with two portraits-frontispices (Barbeyrac and Pufendorf), marbled fawn calf, spine ribbed with partitions and fleurons, cherry coloured title-pieces, triple cold fillet framing on the boards, double gilt fillet on the edges, red tr. Binding of the period. (small lacks at the top of the covers of volumes 1 and 3). The first edition of Barbeyrac's classic translation was published in 1706, in two volumes in-4, and it was reproduced throughout the 18th century. Our edition seems to be the last to have been retouched by the translator. The Protestant jurist Jean Barbeyrac (1674-1744) offers the very example of the French paradox of translation and its strange uses (sometimes prolonged to our days): apart from the fact that they are more sought after for their prefaces and notes offering all the apparatus of a doctrine autonomous from that of the original authors, his versions are true adaptations, minimizing certain aspects of the author's thought, developing more other aspects to the detriment of the exact thought expressed at the beginning. It is understandable that the 20th century had to go beyond, or even leave aside, Barbeyrac's translations in order to discover the exact doctrine of Grotius, Pufendorf, etc., from the original text; and there were often surprises...