The first and only edition of Adriaan Kluit's constitutional history of the Dutch Republic to 1795. Kluit (1735-1807) was a renowned historian, lecturer and from 1778 on, with the exception of the years 1795-1802, a professor of Dutch History at Leiden University. He was famous for his use of medieval and other primary sources in writing his history of Holland and Zeeland: Historia critica comitatus Hollandiae et Zeelandiae (1777-1782). Kluit strongly opposed the "Patriots" and supported the princes of Orange as stadtholders, beliefs that led the University to ouste him from his post after the Batavian Revolution in 1795, but they reinstated him in 1802. He wrote the present constitutional history during this "hiatus" as a more objective adaptation of his previous work: De souvereiniteit der Staten van Holland, in which he criticises the constitutional principles of the Patriots. Kluit died as one of more than 150 victims of the disastrous accidental gunpowder explosion in Leiden in January 1807.
From the library of Jan Willem Six van Vromade (1872-1936) at his country house Hilverbeek.
Some minor signs of use on the boards, not affecting the integrity of the binding, and very slight discoloration of the top edges, marbled endpapers and a small tear in the final endleaf in vol. 2, overall in very good condition. De Buck 6868; Nijhoff, Bibliotheca historico-Neerlandica, 549. cf. NNBW III, 696-698.