The Present State of Germany

A Note on the Text

xxix a note on the text Edmund Bohun’s translation of Pufendorf’sDestatuImperiiGermanici was issued twice: first by an anonymous “person of quality” in 1690 and then with Bohun’s name in 1696.1 Except for their title pages, the two versions appear exactly the same. The 1696 version, which is reissued here, repeats the licensure page of the earlier printing, with its date of January 31, 1689/90, as well as the prefatory “To the Reader” dated January 24, 1689. Moreover, the table of contents, shoulder (margin) titles and notes, pagination, first and last words on each page, the lack of an index—even Bohun’s textual insertions (especially in chapters VII and VIII), which update, expand, or comment on (thus, “continue”)Pufendorf ’s account—all are the same. Neither printing indicates which of the numerous Latin “first” editions since 1667 Bohun used as the basis of his translation. In checking its accuracy, I have consulted one of the 1667 printings (viz., the fourth “Geneva”edition)andalsothetextissued 1. The Present State of Germany; or, An Account of the Extent, Rise, Form, Wealth, Strength, Weaknesses and Interests of that Empire. The Prerogatives of the Emperor, and the Priviledges of the Electors, Princes, and Free Cities. Adapted to the present Circumstances of that Nation. By a Person of Quality. London, Printed for Richard Chiswel, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1690; and, The Present State of Germany. Written in Latin by the Learned Samuel Puffendorff, Under the Name of Severinus de Monzambano Veronensis. Made English and Continued by Edmund Bohun, Esq. London, Printed for Richard Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1696. The 1690 version is the focus of Heinz Duchhardt’s “Pufendorf in England.” Duchhardt mentions the 1696 printing but does not seem to have examined it, for he does not mention Bohun’s name or explicitly identify the later version with its 1690 “Vorläufer” (150). xxx note on the text by Fritz Salomon in 1910, which is based on the very first “Geneva” edition.2 When Pufendorf prepared the second edition, which was finished in the early 1690s shortly before his death, he made significant changes in the text. This posthumous edition(editioposthuma, ore.p.)wasnotpublished until 1706 by J. P. Gundling3 and was therefore unavailable to Bohun. However, because of the importance of these emendations for an understanding of Pufendorf’s development, I have included them in this Liberty Fund edition, thus complementing Bohun’s translation with my own renditions of the new material. Indeed, the editio posthuma ’s many excisions, additions, and revisions (some quite lengthy) made it a thorough reworking of the original text rather than a mere republicationwithtouch-ups.Thiscomplicatestheidentificationof variants by requiring judgments of significance. For these I have also relied on Salomon, who reproduced the first edition and indicated (more extensively than Denzer [Verfassung des deutschen Reiches, ed. Denzer, 1994]) the variations of the second. However, inallsuchinstances,Ihave 2. Severini de Monzambano Veronensis De statu Imperii Germanici ad Laelium fratrem , dominum Trezolani, liber unus (Geneva: Petrus Columesius, 1667) (Salomon, “Literaturverzeichnis,” no. 4, p. 11); and Severinus de Monzambano (Samuel von Pufendorf ) De Statu Imperii Germanici: nach dem ersten Druck mit Berücksichtigung der Ausgabe letzter Hand, ed. Fritz Salomon (Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1910). Other notable Latin editions include those by Gottlieb Gerhard Titius (Leipzig , 1708), which prefers the editioposthuma, andthatbyChristianThomasius(Halle, 1714; first published in 1695), which reprints the first edition but considers the editio posthuma in the notes. (After Pufendorf’s death in 1695, Thomasius, like Gundling [see below], apparently had access to Pufendorf’s revised manuscript through his widow.) Both editions are extensively annotated. Geneva was a fictive place of publication ; the work was actually published at The Hague by Adrian Vlacq. See pp. xii– xiii of the introduction above. 3. Samuelis L.B. de Pufendorf De statu Imperii Germanici liber unus, edited with a preface by Jacob Paul Gundling (Coloniae ad Spream: Rüdiger, 1706). The city of Cölln, in which this edition was published, was located on an island in the River Spree, which flows through Berlin; separately established in the Middle Ages and formally distinct, Cölln was finally absorbed by Berlin in 1709. The editio posthuma left out Pufendorf’s original preface, includingthepretended Italian persona, and made similar adjustments throughout the text. In its place,Gundling added his own preface to the work, followed by a second preface whose...