{"product_id":"nicolas-augustin-si-la-torture-est-un-moyen-seur-a-verifier-les-crimes-secrets-dissertation-morale-et-juridique-par-laquelle-il-est-amplement-traite-des-abus-qui-se-commettent-par-tout-en-linstruction-des-proces-criminels-ouvrage-necessaire-a-t","title":"NICOLAS, Augustin. Si la torture est un moyen seur a verifier les crimes secrets; dissertation morale et juridique, par laquelle il est amplement traité des abus qui se commettent par tout en l'instruction des procés criminels, ... ouvrage necessaire à t…","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"font-variant: small-caps\"\u003eAgainst the Torture of Witches\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNICOLAS, Augustin.\u003c\/strong\u003e Si la torture est un moyen seur a verifier les crimes secrets; dissertation morale et juridique, par laquelle il est amplement traité des abus qui se commettent par tout en l'instruction des procés criminels, ... ouvrage necessaire à tous juges… \u003ci\u003eAmsterdam: Chez Abraham Wolfgang près de la Bourse.\u003c\/i\u003e 1681.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSmall 8vo. Contemporary mottled sheep, boards ruled in blind, spine blind-ruled in compartments and lettered directly in gilt, edges sprinkled red and blue; pp. 224, [8], woodcut initials, head-, and tailpieces; extremities a little rubbed, joints splitting at foot, tail of spine chipped, remnants of paper label to foot of spine; title a little dust-soiled, light variable toning and spotting, but overall a very good, crisp copy; eighteenth-century annotations in ink to front free endpaper, and 3 ff. loosely inserted notes in the same hand; manuscript ink correction to A2; eighteenth-century ink shelfmark and engraved armorial bookplate of Alexandre Le Mareschal of Beauvais (1802–1875) to front pastedown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFirst edition of one of the earliest European works to openly criticise judicial torture, particularly in the prosecution of witchcraft, with eighteenth-century annotations referring to contemporary controversies on the abolition of torture.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAugustin Nicolas (1622–1695), magistrate, royal councillor, and sometime president of the Parlement of Dijon, published Si la torture est un moyen seur à vérifier les crimes secrets as a sustained attack on the use of torture in criminal investigations. Although principally directed against torture in witchcraft trials, the work effectively becomes ‘the first work openly critical of the practice of torture’ in Europe (Silverman, p. 161). Nicolas argues that torture does not reveal truth but destroys it. Far from distinguishing guilt from innocence, pain merely compels the accused to say whatever may bring relief. Innocent victims, he insists, readily confess to impossible crimes, while judges mistake desperation for proof. Witchcraft prosecutions appeared to him especially dangerous because they rested upon fear, superstition, rumour, and invisible crimes incapable of rational demonstration. Under torture, the accused would confess to absurdities – flying through the air, attending sabbaths with the Devil (p. 147) – not because such acts were real, but because suffering and suggestion produced judicial fantasy. Torture thus became not an instrument of investigation, but a mechanism for confirming prior prejudice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNicolas grounded his objections less in humanitarian sentiment than in epistemology: torture corrupted evidence and impeded the discovery of truth. Together with Jacques Tourreil’s later Si la torture est une bonne voye, pour découvrir la vérité (1694), Nicolas’ work anticipated arguments more famously developed in the eighteenth century by Cesare Beccaria and Pietro Verri. Our copy contains eighteenth-century annotations referring to other major anti-torture works, including the Tractatus de quaestionibus et tormentis attributed to Baldus de Ubaldis and the Tribunal Reformatum of Johannes Grevius. Another note records that in 1748 the Neapolitans, while granting a voluntary subsidy to their king, petitioned for the abolition of torture (‘Gazette d’Amsterdam, mai 1748’). A further annotation cites the Année littéraire (1775), describing Nicolas’ dissertation as ‘le meilleur de ses ouvrages’ and ‘livre difficile à trouver’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSTCN 841776288; USTC 1817384; Brunet IV, col. 62. See Silverman, Tortured Subjects: Pain, Truth, and the Body in Early Modern France (2001).  \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSKU: \u003c\/strong\u003e2124351\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sotherans","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57313376010617,"sku":"2124351","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0045\/2178\/7426\/files\/2124351c.jpg?v=1779379348","url":"https:\/\/sotherans.co.uk\/products\/nicolas-augustin-si-la-torture-est-un-moyen-seur-a-verifier-les-crimes-secrets-dissertation-morale-et-juridique-par-laquelle-il-est-amplement-traite-des-abus-qui-se-commettent-par-tout-en-linstruction-des-proces-criminels-ouvrage-necessaire-a-t","provider":"Sotherans","version":"1.0","type":"link"}