Nakaz Imperatritsy Ekateriny II, Dannyi Kommissii o Sochinenii..

1907. The First Edition of the Nakaz Published in the Twentieth Century Catherine II [1762-1796], Empress of Russia. Chechulin, Nikolai Dmitrevich [1863-1927], Editor. Nakaz Imperatritsy Ekateriny II, Dannyi Kommissii o Sochinenii Proekta Novago Ulozheniia. St. Petersburg: Izd. Iurid. Knizhnago Sklada "Pravo," 1907. ii, cliv, 174 pp. Three folding plates (of facsimile manuscript leaves). Text of Nakaz in Russian with parallel French translation. Contemporary pebbled cloth, light rubbing to extremities with minor wear to spine ends and corners, which are bumped. Light toning to text, a few leaves have carefully repaired tears. Early inscription and owner inkstamp to title page, interior otherwise clean. $1,250. * The first edition published in the twentieth century. Title two in the series Pamiatniki Russkago Zakonodatel'stva 1649-1832. 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. Our 1907 edition may have been inspired by a spirit of reform fired by the Russian Revolution of 1905. 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 19).