Beschreibung:

CONSTITUTIONS] Constitutions des Treize Etats-Unis de L'Amerique . Philadelphia & Paris: Pierres and Pissot, 1783. First edition, one of 600 copies ordered printed by Benjamin Franklin (including the 100 large paper copies). Translated by Duc de la Rochefoucauld with approximately fifty footnotes likely authored by Franklin. Contemporary French calf gilt, marbled edges and endpapers. 7 7/8 x 4 3/4 inches (20 x 12 cm); [4], 540 pp., tipped-in at end is a manuscript index of the state constitutions in French. The binding worn with the covers nearly detached and losses, stamps to verso of title with slight bleed through, title toned, otherwise a very clean copy internally. While serving as Ambassador to France in early in 1783, Benjamin Franklin arranged to have the 1781 Constitutions of the Several Independent States (see preceding lot) translated into French to distribute amongst the foreign ministers in Paris so that misconceptions of the political state of America during the revolution could be corrected and to rally support for the American cause. The title page features the first printing of the Great Seal of the Unites States, which was designed by Charles Thomson in America in 1781 and probably reached Franklin on a wax seal on a document, hence the saw-tooth border present here. Besides the state constitutions, the book also prints the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. In response, Franklin found the state constitutions were much admired. Howes C-716; Sabin 16118. C The New York City Bar Association