Montesquieu

To prevent abuse, power must check power.

Enlightenment · Liberalism1689 – 1755 FranceEnlightenment philosopherPolitical thinkerJuristNovelist

Overview Arguments · 4 Works Quotes Lineage

1721

Persian Letters essential

Published without his name. A novel in letters: two Persians, Usbek and Rica, discover France and describe it through foreign eyes. Characters are speaking, not Montesquieu directly. Letters added in 1754; numbering of the 1758 edition.

Published without the author's name

1734

Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline

Why Rome rose, then fell. Not yet in our corpus.

Published without the author's name

1748

The Spirit of the Laws essential

Published without his name in Geneva, the fruit of twenty years of work. Placed on the Index in 1751. Our text is the edition revised from his corrections, published after his death (1757), in period spelling ("loix"). We have books I-III, VIII, XI, XIV-XVII and XIX.

Published without the author's name

1750

Defence of the Spirit of the Laws

His answer to the religious critics of his book. Not yet in our corpus.

Written and published by the author