Leighton Library, Dunblane

Scotland's oldest purpose-built independent library founded in 1687

Leighton Library has 1724 edition of "De officio hominis et civis" by Baron Samuel von Pufendorf

Added at 09:36 on 08 January 2026

The Leighton Library has a 1724 edition of "De officio hominis et civis" (“On the Duty of Man and Citizen”) by German jurist, political philosopher, economist, statesman, and historian Baron Samuel von Pufendorf who was born #OnThisDay 8 January 1632.

This is a treatise on the duty of man and citizen according to the natural law, one of the most influential early textbooks on how society, law, and citizenship should work.

Pufendorf argued that:
• humans are naturally social
• peace, not war, is the natural state of humanity
• laws and governments exist to help people live together safely and reasonably.

These ideas fed directly into Enlightenment political thought and influenced later thinkers, including those behind the American Revolution.

< Leighton Library has 1743 edition of "The Adventures of Telemachus" by François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon