The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Translator’s Introduction
• Note On the Liberty Fund Edition
• Preface to the First Edition (1603)
• Preface to the Third Edition (1614)
• I: The General Elements of Politics
• Ii-iii: the Family
• Ii
• Iii
• IV: The Collegium
• V-vi: the City
• V
• Vi
• Vii-viii: the Province
• Vii
• Viii
• IX: Political Sovereignty and Ecclesiastical Communication
• X–xvii: Secular Communication
• X
• Xi
• Xii
• Xiii
• Xiv
• Xv
• Xvi
• Xvii
• XVIII: The Ephors and Their Duties
• Xix–xx: the Constituting of the Supreme Magistrate
• Xix
• Xx
• Xxi–xxvii: Political Prudence In the Administration of the Commonwealth
• Xxi
• Xxii
• Xxiii
• Xxiv
• Xxv
• Xxvi
• Xxvii
• XXVIII: Ecclesiastical Administration
• Xxix–xxxvii: Secular Administration
• Xxix
• Xxx
• Xxxi
• Xxxii
• Xxxiii
• Xxxiv
• Xxxv
• Xxxvi
• Xxxvii
• XXXVIII: Tyranny and Its Remedies
• XXXIX: Types of Supreme Magistrate
• Collation of This Translation With the 1614 Edition
• The Writings of Johannes Althusius

The Writings of Johannes Althusius

Jurisprudentia Romana

Editio quinta, correcta et epitome ac brevi anacephalaeosi Dicaeologicae aucta. Herborn: From the press of the heirs of Christophorus Corvinus, 1623.

[Fifth edition, corrected and augmented by an extract and a short summary of the main points of a Theory of Justice.]

Civilis Conversationis Libri Duo

Politica

Latin Editions

Editio quinta. Herborn in Nassovia, 1654.

[Fifth edition.]

English Translations

2nd Edition. Edited by Erik Wolf. Deutsches Rechtsdenken, no. 3. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1948.

In Quellenbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft. Edited by Erik Wolf. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1950.

“Politik als Einigung der natürlichen Lebensgemeinschaften.” In Die Politische Wissenschaft, edited by Carl Joachim Friedrich. Orbis Academicus Sec. I, Vol. 8. Freiburg and Munich: Karl Alber, 1961. [Selections following the partial translation by Erik Wolf (see his 1st edition, Grundbegriffe der Politik, above).]

Dicaeologica

Cum gratia et privilegia Caesaris Majestatis. On sale at the press of Christophorus Corvinus, 1618.

[With the gratitude and privileges of His Imperial Majesty.]

Editio secunda priori correction. On sale in Frankfurt at the press of the Heirs of Christophorus Corvinus, 1649.

[Second edition, more accurate than the former one.]

Reprint of the edition printed in Frankfurt am Main in 1649. Aalen: Scientia Publisher, 1967.

Documentary Collections Edited by Althusius

Printed in Emden by Joachim Mennen, official printer, 1656.

Select Bibliography

• Heinz Werner Antholz. Die politische Wirksamkeit des Johannes Althusius in Emden. Abhandlungen und Vorträge zur Geschichte Ostfrieslands, no. 32. Aurich, 1955.
• Frédéric Atger. Essai sur l’Histoire des Doctrines de Contrat Social. Paris, 1906.
• Michael Behnen. “Herrscherbild und Herrschaftstechnik in der Politica des Johannes Althusius.” Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 11 (1984): 417–72.
• Joseph Bischof. Die Volkssouveränitätslehre bei Johannes Althusius und Franz Suarez. Vienna, 1944.
• Wilfried Buchholz. Rousseau und Althusius. Breslau, 1922.
• R. W. and A. J. Carlyle. A History of Medieval Political Theory in the West. Vol. 6. Edinburgh, 1936.
• Frederick S. Carney. “The Associational Theory of Johannes Althusius.” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1960.
• ——— “Associational Thought in Early Calvinism.” In Voluntary Associations: A Study of Groups in Free Societies. Edited by D. B. Robertson. Richmond, Virginia, 1966.
• Won-hong Cho. “The Theory of State and Law of Johannes Althusius” (in Korean; summary in German). Ph.D. diss., National University of Seoul, 1992.
• Karl-Wilhelm Dahm, Werner Krawietz, and Dieter Wyduckel, eds. Politische Theorie des Johannes Althusius. Beiträge des internationalen Symposiums vom 12–16 Juni 1984 in Herborn aus Anlass des 400-jährigen Bestehens der Hohen Schule zu Herborn. Rechtstheorie, Supplementary vol. 7. Berlin, 1987.
• William A. Dunning. A History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu. New York, 1931.
• Hendrik Jan van Eikema Hommes. “Die Bedeutung der Staats- und Gesellschaftslehre des Johannes Althusius für unsere Zeit.” In Recht und Staat im sozialen Wandel. Festschrift für Hans Ulrich Scupin zum 80. Geburtstag. Edited by Norbert Achterberg, Werner Krawietz, and Dieter Wyduckel. Berlin, 1983.
• Daniel J. Elazar. Exploring Federalism. Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1987.
• A.P. d’Entrèves. “Giovanni Althusio e il problema methodologico nella storia della filosofia Politica e giuridica.” Rivista internazionale di folosofia del dritto. XIV (1934).
• Francesco Ercole. Da Bartolo all’ Athusio. Florence, 1932.
• John Neville Figgis. Political Thought from Gerson to Grotius. Cambridge, England, 1956.
• ———. “Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century.” Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 3. New York, 1905.
• Carl Joachim Friedrich. The Age of the Baroque. New York, 1952.
• ———. “Introduction” to the Politica methodice digesta of Johannes Althusius. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932.
• ———. “Johannes Althusius,” Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 2. New York, 1930.
• ———. Johannes Althusius und sein Werk im Rahmen der Entwicklung der Theorie von der Politik. Berlin, 1975.
• Pieter Sjverds Gerbrandy. National and International Stability: Ahhusius: Grotius: van Vollenhoven. Oxford, 1944.
• Otto von Gierke. The Development of Political Theory. Translated by Bernard Freyd. New York, 1939. Also available as Johannes Althusius und die Entwicklung der naturrechtlichen Staatstheorien. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Rechtssystematik. 7th unaltered edition with a preface by Julius von Gierke. Aalen, 1981. (The first edition appeared in 1880 as no. 7 of Untersuchungen zur Deutschen Staatsund Rechtsgeschichte.)
• ———. Natural Law and the Theory of Society 1500 to 1800. Translated by Ernest Barker. Five subsections of Vol. 4 of Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht (Berlin, 1913). Cambridge, England, 1934; reprint, Cambridge, England, 1950.
• G. P. Gooch. English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century. New York, 1959.
• J. W Gough. The Social Contract. 2nd edition. Oxford, 1957.
• Thomas O. Hueglin. “Have We Studied the Wrong Authors? On the Relevance of Johannes Althusius.” Studies in Political Thought 1, no. 1 (Winter, 1992): 75–93.
• ———. “Johannes Althusius: Medieval Constitutionalist or Modern Federalist?” Publius 9, no. 4 (1979): 9–41.
• ———. Sozietaler Foederalismus: Die politische Theorie Des Johannes Althusius. European University Institute Series 13. Berlin and New York, 1991.
• Charles S. McCoy and J. Wayne Baker. Fountainhead of Federalism: Heinrich Bullinger and the Covenantal Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky, 1991.
• Pierre Mesnard. L’Essor de la Philosophie Politique de XVIe Siècle. Paris, 1952.
• Stanley Parry. “The Politics of Johannes Althusius.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1954.
• Ernst Reibstein. Johannes Althusius als Fortsetzer der Schule von Salamanca. Freiburger Rechts- und Staatswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen. Vol. 5. Karlsruhe, 1955.
• Patrick Riley. “Three Seventeenth-Century German Theorists of Federalism: Althusius, Hugo and Leibniz.” Publius 6, no. 3 (1976): 7–41.
• George H. Sabine. A History of Political Theory. London, 1951.
• J. H. M. Salmon. The French Religious Wars in English Political Thought. Oxford, 1959.
• Hans Ulrich Scupin. “Der Begriff der Souveränität bei Johannes Althusius und bei Jean Bodin.” Der Staat 4 (1965): 1–26.
• ———. “Demokratische Elemente in Theorie und Praxis des Johannes Althusius.” In A Desirable World. Essays in honor of Professor Bart Landheer. Edited by A. M. C. H. Reigersman et al. The Hague, 1974.
• ———. “Untrennbarkeit von Staat und Gesellschaft in der Frühneuzeit. Althusius und Bodin.” In Recht und Gesellschaft. Festschrift für Helmut Schelsky zum 65. Geburtstag. Edited by Friedrich Kaulbach and Werner Krawietz. Berlin, 1978.
• Peter Jochen Winters. Die “Politik” des Johannes Althusius und ihre zeitgenössischen Quellen. Zur Grundlegung der politischen Wissenschaft im 16. und im beginnenden 17. Jahrhundert. Freiburger Studien zur Politik und Soziologie. Edited by Arnold Bergstraesser. Freiburg and Breisgau, 1963.
• Erik Wolf. Das Problem der Naturrechtslehre. Karlsruhe, 1964.
• ———. Grosse Rechtsdenker der Deutschen Geistesgeschichte. Tübingen, 1951, 1963 (4th ed.).
• Kurt Wolzendorff. Staatsrecht und Naturrecht in der Lehre vom Widerstandsrecht des Volkes gegen rechtswidridge Ausübung der Staatsgewalt. Breslau, 1916.
• Dieter Wyduckel. Althusius–Bibliographie: Bibliographie zur politischen Ideengeschichte und Staatslehre, zum Staatsrecht und zur Verfassungsgeschichte des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts. Edited by Hans Ulrich Scupin and Ulrich Scheuner. Berlin, 1973. 2 vols. (See especially Vol. 1, Part 2B: “Lebensabrisse und Würdigungen von Leben und Werk des Althusius” [No. 218 ff, p. 19 ff] as well as Part C5: “Herborn und seine Hohe Schule”[No. 855a ff, p. 60 ff].)
• ———. “Johannes Althusius.” In Die Deutsche Literatur Biographisches und bibliographisches Lexikon. Series II: Die Deutsche Literatur zwischen 1450 und 1620. Edited by Hans-Gert Roloff. Vol. 1. Bern, 1991. (This article lists Althusius’ works written in Latin and identifies libraries in which the texts can be found.)

This book was set in Bembo, a typeface adapted from one designed by Francesco da Bologna and first used by the great Venetian printer-publisher Aldus Manutius in 1499 for an edition of Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. It was named for Cardinal Bembo, who was the patron of Aldus Manutius. Although this contemporary version of the face is much regularized, it still retains the feeling of Venetian Old Style in its calligraphic weighting of the rounded letters, its lack of contrast in line weight, and its small internal spaces.

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[16 ] [ See especially Chapters V, VIII, XVIII.]