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95 LESSIUS, Leonard. De iustitia et iure caeterisque virtutibus cardinalibus libri IV. Louvain: Johannes Masius, 1605 A major work in early economic analysis First edition of the most important work of the Jesuit theologian Leonardus Lessius (1554–1623), a major contribution to the development of economic analysis; this copy appropriately from the Jesuit society of Leuven. Comprising a commentary on the Secunda secundae of Aquinas’s Summa Theologica , the work is of key importance as the first detailed theological approach to economic and financial questions, based on the author’s observations of the financial centre of Antwerp. Still firmly in the scholastic tradition, Lessius nonetheless counters traditional Catholic opposition to usury and trade. The book went through more than 20 editions in the author’s lifetime alone, had a significant influence on contemporary thought, and aside from modifying clerical opposition to the practices of charging interest at profit, became an authoritative text used by the business community: “the chapters on interest and commercial subjects are epoch-making in the treatment of these difficult subjects. Lessius (himself) was especially consulted by the merchants of Antwerp on matters of justice” (Dempsey, p. 124). “Combining a full command of earlier scholastic authorities with a hitherto unprecedented grasp of market phenomena, Lessius provided fresh insights that challenged traditional economic doctrine in authoritative fashion. He is, certainly, the foremost continuator of the Spanish school of economic thought. Further, he has claims for consideration as a major contributor to the development of economic analysis”
(Gordon, p. 246). Schumpeter writes of Lessius, along with fellow Jesuit writers Molina and de Lugo, it “is within their systems of moral theology and law that economics gained definite if not separate existence, and it is they who come nearer than does any other group to having been the ‘founders’ of scientific economics” (Schumpeter, p. 97). The provenance of the Jesuit Society of Leuven is particularly apt – the book was printed in Leuven, and Lessius was identified with the University of Leuven for fifty years, first as a student, then as professor. Folio (330 × 203 mm). 18th-century calf, brown morocco spine label, covers bordered in blind, marbled endpapers, red edges. Engraved title page. Jesuit Library of Leuven booklabel to front cover and front pastedown and their stamps to title recto and verso (the latter struck through likely as a mark of deaccession), with a couple of minor ink shelfmarks around the same. Joints and extremities expertly restored and gilt retouched. Paper affixed to lower right corner of C5r to obscure early annotation, early annotations unobscured to S6r and T1v, 3 cm closed tear at foot of F4 not affecting text, sporadic light browning and a few spill burns but contents generally fresh. A very good copy. ¶ Bernard W. Dempsey, Interest and Usury , Dobson Books, 1948; Barry Gordon, Economic Analysis Before Adam Smith: Hesiod to Lessius , Palgrave, 1975; Joseph Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis , Routledge, 1954. Not in Goldsmiths’ or Kress. £15,000 [151144] 96 LEVASSEUR, Pierre Émile. Histoire des classes ouvrières en France depuis 1789 jusqu’à nos jours. Paris: L. Hachette et Cie., 1867 First edition of Levasseur’s history of the modern French working classes, from the library of Edward Spencer
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