Mirabeau [Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Count of]. — On Letters o - Lot 317

Mirabeau [Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Count of]. — On Letters of Arrest and State Prisons. A posthumous work, composed in 1778, Hamburg, n.p., 1782. 2 in-8 volumes, bound in full light calfskin with smooth, decorated spines, title and volume number labels in red morocco, red edges, signature at the bottom: “Gaudreau rel. de la rei[ne]”—1 damaged top cap, weakened clamps—XIV pp. (title page, note to the reader), [1 folio, title of Part 1], 366 pp., [1 folio errata]; 237 pp. (including the general title, the title of Part 2, and the table of contents). First edition, falsely labeled as posthumous, as Mirabeau did not die until 1791. Handwritten period bookplate on the title pages reading “A. Ruffray.” No stranger to royal prisons, Mirabeau used his imprisonment in the Vincennes dungeon from 1777 to 1781 to write this essay, which caused a great stir and established him as a champion of liberty.