NICOLAS (Augustin). Si la torture est un moyen seur a verifi - Lot 242

NICOLAS (Augustin). Si la torture est un moyen seur a verifier les crimes secrets; dissertation morale et juridique, par lequel il est amplement traité des abus qui se commettent par tout en l'instruction des procés criminels, & particulierement en la recherche du Sortilege. Necessary work for all Judges, both Sovereign and Subaltern, & for all Lawyers, both Consultans & Patrocinans. A manifesto for the abolition of torture, a century before Beccaria. Amsterdam, Abraham Wolfgang, 1681. Small in-8 (160 x 101 mm), speckled havana basane, ribbed spine adorned with leather trim and gilt-lettered boxes, red edges (contemporary binding). 224 pp. 4 ff. nch. Spine and edges heavily restored. Interior a little yellowed, some foxing. Very rare first edition. At the end of a long demonstration, both moral and legal, Augustin Nicolas, King's Counselor and Master of Requests at the Dijon Parliament, took a clear stand: "We can conclude with evidence that torture is a way of lying, of error, & of obvious temerity, which God has commanded us exclusively to avoid in all our judgments, both in the Old and New Testaments, that it produces every day excesses of cruelty unworthy of our humanity, & of the Christian name: that we cannot prescribe so much moderation, that it does not succeed all the more deceitfully with regard to deceivers & sorcerers, & that ignorance, malice, indiscreet zeal, or the commitment of Judges cannot introduce a thousand abuses & a thousand excesses, which morally can only be avoided by a complete abolition of a means of error, injustice, & iniquity so recognized ". The work, which heralded the reformism of the Enlightenment and appeared a century before Beccaria's masterpiece (Traité des délits et des peines 1766), was dedicated to King Louis XIV; however, Augustin Nicolas did not obtain the right to publish it in France, and was obliged to resort to the Amsterdam presses. Provenance: de Chessimont library with heraldic bookplate. A fresh, clean copy.