Code Civil des Français, Paris, 1804, 8vo, contemporary French calf-backed marbled boards. FIRST EDITION of the "Napoleonic Code".

Code Civil des Français. Édition Originale et Seule Officielle. Paris: De l' Imprimerie de la Rpublique. An XII, 1804. 8vo (200 x 125mm). Half title, large woodcut allegorical device on the title captioned in a panel beneath "Grand-Juge et Ministre de la Justice", woodcut device of "Le Grand-Juge, Ministre de la Justice, Regnier" on the verso of the final text leaf (some fraying to half title, variable but mainly light spotting, staining and browning). Contemporary French calf-backed marbled boards, the spine lettered and decorated in gilt (boards lightly rubbed). Provenance: From the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune; Mairie de Bourmont, Haute-Marne (old stamp on title); some early pen and pencil annotation to front free endpaper. FIRST EDITION of the "Napoleonic Code" which, under the direction of Napoleon Bonaparte and a special commission led by J. J. Cambaceres, gave post-revolutionary France its first coherent set of laws concerning individual rights, the family, property and the colonies. While all male citizens were granted equal rights, including that of religious dissent, and the secular character of the state was recognised, there was much about the new code that was strikingly illiberal and reactionary: women were deprived of individual rights, as were illegitimate children, and colonial slavery was re-introduced. The statutes were finally approved in March 1804 and published shortly after for the first time in the present volume. Brunet II, 118.