Natural Law: Item

Biographical and Intellectual Profile

Biography

Pufendorf was born on January 6, 1632, in the Saxon village Dorfchemnitz (Thalheim), and raised in nearby Flöha, where the family endured the second half of the Thirty Years War. He was the third of four sons born to a poor Lutheran pastor whose progeny comprised seven children. Among the brothers, Samuel was closest to Esaias, his senior by four years, and who recurrently facilitated his younger brother’s career path. Jeremias, the oldest son, took over the Flöha pastorate after the father’s death in 1648, while the youngest, Johannes, eventually followed Esaias and Samuel to Sweden, where he died prematurely in 1668 (while in service to the aristocrat Otto Wilhelm von Königsmarck [1639–1688], who throughout most of his career worked for the Swedish Crown). Like Esaias, Samuel attended the Grimma Fürstenschule and then the university in Leipzig – with a brief interval at Jena, where he obtained his Magister degree. A self-motivated autodidact, Pufendorf read intensively in ancient and humanistic sources already at Grimma, and then supplemented the standard university lectures at Leipzig by participating in extra-curricular learned societies such as the Collegium Anthologicum, where he made numerous presentations that already anticipated some themes in his later works. One of his teachers at both Leipzig and Jena, and a lifelong friend, was the unconventional Aristotelian, Erhard Weigel, who also influenced – albeit quite differently – the young(er) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716).

Serving as the de facto centre of Swedish administration in Germany toward the end of the Thirty Years War, Leipzig was frequented by young Swedish nobles who took advantage of the opportunity to study at the university. It was through such connections that Esaias entered Swedish diplomatic service (1656) and, in that capacity, arranged for Samuel to become (April 1658) tutor to the children of Peter Julius Coyet, Sweden’s legate to the ongoing peace negotiations with Denmark. Coyet’s real or presumed role in Sweden’s sudden resumption of hostilities during the process soon led to eight months’ house arrest (in Copenhagen) for his entourage, including Samuel, who described the episode in his Gundaeus Baubator Danicus (1660). It was during this difficult time (August 1658 – April 1659), when he became seriously ill, that he composed his first natural law work, Elementa jurisprudentiae universalis, published a year later (1660) in the Netherlands – to which the Coyets had relocated upon their release. There Pufendorf also renewed his classical studies by attending Leiden University and editing two neo-classical Latin treatises conveniently available in Coyet’s excellent, booty-filled library. As well, he came to know important classical scholars such as Johann Friedrich Gronovius and Johann Georg Graevius, who were – like Peter Grotius (Hugo Grotius’s son, 1615–78) – acquainted with the recently reinstalled Palatine Elector, Karl I. Ludwig (an alumnus of the university). To him Pufendorf dedicated his Elementa, a move that led – after some negotiations with the faculty – to a post at the recently restored university at Heidelberg, assumed on November 9, 1661. This was an extraordinary (and hybrid) professorship in philology and the law of nations, which Pufendorf conveniently recalled as Germany’s first chair in natural law.

Pufendorf remained in Heidelberg until early 1668, continuing his philological work, lecturing on Grotius, tutoring the young Kurprinz Karl II (1651–85), and occasionally advising as well as publicly defending the Elector in political contexts (e.g., the so-called Wildfangstreit, 1664–67). He began also to develop the natural law perspective of Elementa through a series of academic dissertations that evince his evolving philosophical method. These activities – in conjunction with concrete circumstances (specifically, the Holy Roman Empire’s collective exposure to a renewed Turkish threat) – generated the notorious Monzambano (1667), a bracing critique of mainstream conceptions of the Empire that stirred up much opposition to Pufendorf, the work’s pseudonymous author.

Due partially to family ties of the Swedish royal family, Heidelberg was at the time another academic destination of Nordic students and their guardians, allowing Pufendorf to maintain and expand such connections. Through them as well as Esaias’ continuing efforts on his behalf, he began in 1668 a professorship in natural law at the newly established University of Lund, in the still contested Scanian province recently taken from Denmark. There he published his magnum opus, De jure naturae et gentium (1672 – though nearly finished already at Heidelberg), which soon embroiled him in conflicts with other professors and clergy motivated by both personal and doctrinal reasons. Practically shielded by his high-level connections, Pufendorf engaged their arguments with a series of astute refutations, and – as important – by issuing a shorter, textbook version of the larger work, De officio hominis et civis (1673), dedicated to Gustav Otto Steenbock, chancellor of the University of Lund. This simplified, more accessible, and somewhat domesticated instantiation of the larger work fitted De officio for a wider, less adventurous reading public – making it an academic best-seller for a century – and thereby suggested that it was not the mortal threat to faith and morals that his enemies claimed. Still, both works were for a while condemned in various Continental locations, and some of Pufendorf’s supporters there (e.g., Gottfried Klinger, in Jena) courted serious trouble by defending him.

While in Lund, Pufendorf also published his Dissertationes academicae selectiores (1675), a collection of essays written or supervised in both Heidelberg and Lund. And he continued to engage his relentless critics with sharp, satirical responses gathered later into the appropriately titled Eris Scandica (1686). These defensive labours – Pufendorf later revealed in his correspondence – kept him from the work in moral theology that he had planned to write next. Instead, he left academia in late 1676, not only because the renewed Danish war forced the University of Lund to close but also because he had in fact already accepted the posts of official Swedish historiographer and privy counselor in Stockholm – roles augmented in 1682 by the role of personal secretary to the new queen, Ulrika Eleonora (1656–93). In his new capacities Pufendorf was mainly occupied with history, but also with incidental defenses of Swedish policy such as Discussio quorundam scriptorum Brandeburgicorum (1675, while still at Lund) and Dissertatio de occasionibus foederum inter Sueciam et Galliam (c. 1680).

In Stockholm, Pufendorf continued his response to critics by issuing the Eris Scandica collection and, as well, publishing a second, significantly revised edition of De jure (1684). His historical labours there led, first, to the Einleitung zu der Historie der vornehmsten Reiche und Staaten so itziger Zeit in Europa sich befinden (1682) – based on previous lectures at Lund and possibly Heidelberg – a popular work enlarged in 1686 by a separate, Continuirte Einleitung (as long as the previous tome) focusing entirely on Sweden. However, most of his effort was devoted to the Commentariorum de rebus Suecicis libri XXVI (1686), which traced Swedish history from the start (1630) of Gustav Adolphus’ German campaigns to the abdication (1654) of his daughter, Christina; and its historical continuation, De rebus a Carolo Gustavo Sueciae rege gestis, which was essentially finished by 1687 but not published (posthumously) until 1696.

Despite his blunt (and, at the time, much resented) criticisms of Brandenburg in the earlier Discussio (1675), Pufendorf began already in 1684 to negotiate with Brandenburg representatives Paul von Fuchs and Pierre Falaiseau about a transfer to Berlin, again as court counsellor and historian. Though the Swedes were loath to see him go, given his knowledge of the kingdom’s archives, Charles XI was induced to ‘loan’ him temporarily to Frederick William, the Elector of Brandenburg, who received Pufendorf in early 1688, barely three months before the Elector died. While still in Stockholm, Pufendorf had also produced a treatise on church-state relations (De habitu religionis Christianae ad vitam civilem, 1687) in response to Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and in Berlin he began to work on another, similar work (issued posthumously) on the religious unification of Christians: Jus feciale divinum (1695), whose view of toleration engaged him in discussion with Jean Le Clerc and (like Monzambano and other works) irked the more irenic Leibniz. Monzambano itself was significantly revised (with Austria replacing France as the main threat to liberty in the Empire) before Pufendorf died, but not republished until 1706 by Jakob Paul von Gundling (1673–1731).

Pufendorf’s main accomplishments in Berlin were the massive De rebus gestis Friderici Wilhelmi Magni (1695), and a long fragment of its intended continuation, De rebus gestis Friderici Tertii (1784), both published posthumously. The latter includes a detailed account in three books of the English Revolution (1688) as seen from Brandenburg. Since the long-finished Swedish history of Charles X Gustav still required royal permission to print, Pufendorf was forced in 1694 to return temporarily to Stockholm, where he received a formal Swedish baronetcy (Freiherr) to match the one he had received earlier (1690) in Brandenburg. However, the trip also induced a stroke. Now unable to work, Pufendorf also developed sepsis from a foot injury, and from this he died in Berlin on October 26, 1694 – despite the best efforts of the king’s own physician. His funeral oration in the Nikolaikirche, where he is buried, was delivered by his friend, the Pietist Philipp Jakob Spener.

Comment on main natural law works

Any listing of Pufendorf’s main natural law works will include the following: first, the stark and unadorned Elementa (1660) where he sought to apply Weigel’s ‘mathematical’ method to ideas derived from Grotius and Hobbes. It is divided into two parts: ‘definitions’ and ‘axioms’ constituting the theoretical scaffolding, and then their application in five lengthy ‘observations’ – respectively rational and empirical sectors, that is, meant jointly to provide argumentative rigor and scientific certitude to the new discipline of natural law. The so-called ‘mathematical’ character of Elementa is debatable, at least compared to works like Spinoza’s Ethics; clearly, though, it was Pufendorf’s first attempt at a system, showing that he intended to organize natural law in a new way.

Then there are the lengthy Heidelberg (and Lund) essays eventually collected in Dissertationes (1675). These are formally and functionally academic exercises, but also learned treatises in which Pufendorf (like Grotius) reasserted his humanist roots by ‘arguing’ in a new, more expansive vein that more adeptly merged rational and empirical elements. Like the earlier Elementa (1660), they provided much material for De jure (1672). Thus, one of the pieces, De statu hominum naturali (originally 1674), which has an independent modern edition, is especially important for its method-conscious analysis of the ‘state of nature’. As in the slightly earlier De jure and De officio (1673), it distinguishes three versions of this grounding notion and explains its hypothetical, fictio contrarii support for Pufendorf’s natural law principle of sociality.

De jure is a massive work in eight books even heftier than Grotius’s and Cumberland’s similar opera. It references a profusion of authors and works, both ancient and modern, while closely engaging the arguments of Grotius, Hobbes, and many others – plainly constituting the most complete version of Pufendorf’s natural law system. Thus, Books I-III establish basic principles; Books IV-V elaborate them through social institutions like property, language, economics, and contract; and Books VI-VIII show them at work in what Pufendorf took to be the most basic institutions of social life: marriage, family, household, and the state. The ‘law of nations’ (which Pufendorf took to be part of natural law) featured in the title is dealt with more diffusely and ad hoc: in considering negotiations among states, laws of war, distinctions between confederations and states, duties to patria, and so forth. The second (1684) edition of De jure was significantly revised, as Pufendorf responded implicitly to charges of Hobbism by emphasizing his Stoic affinities and comparing the work to that of the less suspect (Bishop) Richard Cumberland (1631–1718). It was this edition and the augmented (auctior) version of 1688 that were translated into many European languages (by Jean Barbeyrac, Basil Kennet, and others), thereby remaining central to natural law discussions throughout the eighteenth century. Significant, too, were the annotated Latin editions of Johann Nikolaus Hertius (1706) and Gottfried Mascovius (1743–44, which included the Eris Scandica [1686]) with which the vernacular translations interacted by borrowing and contributing notes.

De officio is an impressive condensation that eschews both the lean ‘mathematical’ approach of Elementa as well as the learned abundance of De jure. It was quickly recognized as a pedagogical masterpiece and became a natural law primer for hundreds of university courses over nearly a century – again in many languages. Comprised of two books, it discusses first the natural law duty (officium) of human beings as such, and then their duty as citizens. Its treatment entailed no basic changes in Pufendorf’s doctrine, though (necessarily) simplifying certain aspects and clarifying others. Thus, its Preface offers an exceptionally clear statement of Pufendorf’s demarcation of disciplines: (secular) natural law, (positive) civil law, and (scriptural) moral theology. De officio also spawned many imitators, but even when authors hewed a more independent path they typically retained its organizational structure.

Eris Scandica collects most of Pufendorf’s polemical writings. It is a wonderful example of seventeenth-century academic contestation (at which Pufendorf excelled) that also articulates or enlarges various notions and arguments. Beside the opening autobiography (Apologia pro se et suo libro, 1674) which sets out the general context of the debate, as well as various ad hoc (and ad hominem) rejoinders to critics, we also find a more or less independent treatise in six parts: Specimen controversiarum. De origine et progressu disciplinaejuris naturalis (1677). This long essay – in both its title but especially the first chapter (“on the origin and progress of the discipline of natural law”) – launched a new genre devoted to the ‘history’ of the subject – an approach subsequently much employed to expound natural law through self-inclusive accounts of its temporal development. Its most famous and, perhaps, influential practitioner was Pufendorf’s French translator, Jean Barbeyrac, whose 1706 “Preface [to De jure] du traducteur” was added, in 1729, to a previously published English translation of De jure by Basil Kennet, there entitled “An Historical and Critical Account of the Science of Morality”. The Specimen also contains chapters focusing on other central notions: philosophical innovation (II), the state of nature (III), the fundamental (sociality) principle of natural law (IV), the origin of morality, the moral ‘indifference’ of the physical world (V), and the proper approach to criticizing such doctrines (VI) – effectively constituting another, more advanced primer of Pufendorf’s natural law view.

Comment on profile’s conception of natural law

Though situated in a natural law ‘tradition’ in the sense of engaging intellectual predecessors with peculiar concepts, terms, and modes of argument, Pufendorf insisted on libertas philosophandi – the freedom to challenge, change, and renovate that inheritance. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was resolutely anti-authoritarian, despised ‘-isms’ of any sort (particularly the dogmatic ‘aristotelianism’ and ‘scholasticism’ of his time), and deemed philosophers akin to the new natural scientists – who dared go where no one had been before. Indeed, he did not hesitate to challenge even those who influenced him most, including Grotius and Hobbes, regarding them as fallible precursors and sources to be ‘used’ in his own philosophizing.

Pufendorf’s approach was at once non-theological (secular) and non-positivist: that is, he eschewed philosophical reliance on scriptural (religious) authority and he distinguished de jure (normative) claims of reason from de facto dictates of positive law. Moreover, his appeal to reason was both non-metaphysical and non-rationalist – opposed to perfectionist ontologies (whether prelapsarian or platonist) presumptively accessible to special rational insight. Rather, whatever there is to discover about the world – at least for the sake of practice – human thought is inevitably ‘constructivist’ insofar as it pragmatically ‘imposes’ intellectual categories on experience in order to grasp and regulate the same. The so-called ‘moral entities’ resulting from this interactive process are ontologically neither random nor fixed, but nonetheless useful and reliable.

Pufendorf’s organizing, sociality principle has loose ties to Stoicism (as his use of Cumberland evinces) but derives more immediately from Grotius adapted by the ‘Epicurean’ Hobbes. That is, though partially descriptive, it is prescriptive in the main: humans are moved by cooperative impulses but also evince many unsociable ones that need to be regulated. Hobbes over-emphasized the latter traits, Pufendorf thought, while many of his own successors – especially in the British tradition – would return to the former in relying on congenital ‘moral’ or sociable inclinations operating as guides and motivators. This was clearly antithetical to Pufendorf’s law/duty ethics, however, which involves a different sort of ‘obligation’. Also differing from his view were the natural ‘rights’ orientation of John Locke and Barbeyrac, and the neo-scholastic natural law perspective of Leibniz and Christian Wolff – both of which were unfortunately often conflated with it or, at least, not sufficiently distinguished therefrom. Barbeyrac in particular (and the many who relied on him) became the great obfuscator insofar as his role as ‘translator’ cast him as a mere ‘transmitter’ of Pufendorf’s thought, even though he often used it, quite explicitly, as a vehicle for his own views – with massive historical effect. This explains why Pufendorf’s obvious historical ‘influence’ has ironically been a major obstacle to an appreciation of his philosophical ‘importance’.

In its reliance on human experience, individual as well as collective and historical, Pufendorf’s view was empirical or realistic in a ‘modern’ sense; yet unlike Hobbes’s, it was not insistently materialistic. General conceptions of God’s existence, providence, human souls, and basic human decisional capacity are assumed as authentic descriptors of the world. Philosophically, they are picture-preferences or necessary side-constraints, however, rather than theological trumps or ontic foundations. Nonetheless, they permit the application of other (more recent) distinctions such as teleological/deontological and intellectualist/voluntarist – which can sometimes become misleadingly constrictive. This is because Pufendorf’s system embodies both elements of such binaries, operating as a sort of divinely willed ‘rule-utilitarian’ framework. In short, a beneficent God (presumably) wills and morally enjoins what humans actually need and want: namely, the rule-governed sociable interactions that in fact benefit us all. Other notions (right, dignity, justice, and so on) which are sometimes taken in an independent, transcendent or transcendental sense are rather functions of this general insight or assumption.

Biographical Data

Education

1645.09.03 - 1650.09.18, Grimma Fürstenschule

1650 - 1658, Theology, philosophy, jurisprudence, philology, and history, University of Leipzig [Erhard Weigel] (matriculated non iuravit in summer semester 1645)

1656.08.14 - 1656.08.xx, Ethics and politics, University of Jena [Erhard Weigel] (stay of less than two weeks)

1660.03.31 - 1661, Classic philology, University of Leiden (matriculated as tutor for Martin and Peter Trotius, and for Wilhelm Julius Coyet, son of Peter Julius Coyet)

Degrees

1656.08.19, Magister philosophiae, University of Jena

Travels

1660 - 1661, The Netherlands (travelled as tutor for Wilhelm Julius Coyet, son of Peter Julius Coyet.)

Teaching

1661-1667, Philology, natural and international law (using Grotius), Faculty of Philosophy, University of Heidelberg

1668-1676, Monzambano, De jure naturae et gentium, De officio hominis et civis, history of European states, public and private lecture courses, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Philosohy, University of Lund

Career

1658.04.xx - 1659, Private tutor, family of Peter Julius Coyet (Swedish Diplomat)

1661.11.09 - 1664, Extraordinary professor of philology and the law of nations, University of Heidelberg, Faculty of Philosophy

1664 - 1667, Ordinary professor of philology and the law of nations, University of Heidelberg, Faculty of Philosophy

1664 - 1668, Private tutor, electorate of the Palatinate (tutor to Prince Charles, later Charles II, Elector Palatine)

1668.08.xx - 1676, Ordinary (and primarius) professor of the law of nature and nations, University of Lund, Faculty of Law (appointed November 29, 1667)

1668.08.xx - 1676, Ordinary professor of ethics and politics, University of Lund, Faculty of Philosophy (appointed November 29, 1667)

1677.08.24 - 1694.05.23, Royal historiographer of Sweden, court of Charles XI (on leave from January 1688)

1677.11.14 - 1682, Royal secretary, court of Charles XI

1682 - 1686, Secretary, Queen Ulrika Eleonora

1686 - 1694, Historiographer, electoral court of Brandenburg (assumed office February 1688)

Titles, Memberships and Other Relevant Roles

1676.03.xx - 1676.10.xx, Chairman and member, Kommissorialrätter (ad hoc administrative commision with judicial powers), Scania

1682.01.24 - 1688, Assessor, College of Antiquities, Stockholm

1684.05.07, Ennobled, Stockholm (not initiated into the House of Nobility)

1688, Member, Kammergericht (chamber court), Berlin

1688, Hofrat (court councillor), electoral court of Brandenburg, Berlin

1690, German Freiherr

1690, Privy councillor, electoral court of Brandenburg, Berlin

1694.05.31, Swedish Freiherr (not initiated into the House of Nobility)

Bibliographical Data

Printed Sources

Books

Elementa iurisprudentiae universalis, libri II (Den Haag: Vlacq, 1660).
- 1668 (Cygneae: Ebel).
- 1669 (Jena: Meyer, Werther): Digital version
- 1680 (Frankfurt, Jena: Meyer).
- 1931 [English trans. William Abbott Oldfather, ed. James Brown Scott] (London: Clarendon Press).
- 1999 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag), ed. Thomas Behme.
- 2009 [English trans. William Abbott Oldfather, ed. Thomas Behme] (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund): Digital version

Severini de Monzambano de statu imperii Germanici ad laelium fratrem, dominum trezolani liber unus (Geneva: Columesius, 1667): Digital version
- 1668 (Geneva: Nemo).
- 1669 (Geneva: Nemo): Digital version
- 1671 (Geneva: Nemo): Digital version
- 1682 (n.p.: n.n.).
- 1684 (n.p.: n.n.).
- 1690 [English trans. by Edmund Bohun] (London: Richard Chiswell).
- 1695 (Halle: Salfeld): Digital version
- 1696 [English trans. by Edmund Bohun] (London: Richard Chiswell).
- 1703 (Halle: Salfeld): Digital version
- 1706 (Berlin: Rüdiger).
- 1708 (Leipzig: Fritsch): Digital version
- 1714 (Halle: Salfeld): Digital version
- 1715 [German trans. by ?] (Leipzig: Weidmann).
- 1721 (Geneva: n.p.): Digital version
- 1734 (Leipzig: Blochberger).
- 1976 [German trans. by Horst Denzer] (Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam Jun.).
- 2007 [English trans. by Edmund Bohun, ed. Michael J. Seidler] (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund): Digital version

De iure naturae et gentium, libri VIII (Lund: Junghans, Haberegger, 1672).
- 1684 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch, Andreae).
- 1688 (Amsterdam: Hoogenhuysen).
- 1694 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch, Wustius).
- 1698 (Amsterdam: Wolters).
- 1703 [English trans. by P. William and K. Basil after Jean Barbeyrac] (Oxford: L. Lichtfeld): Digital version
- 1706 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1706 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Amsterdam: Kuyper): Digital version
- 1710 [English trans. by K. Basil after Jean Barbeyrac (Oxford: L. Lichjeld): Digital version
- 1711 [German trans. by J. N. Hertius after Jean Barbeyrac] (Frankfurt: Knoch).
- 1712 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Amsterdam: De Coup): Digital version
- 1716 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1728 [English transl. by K. Basil after Jean Barbeyrac] (London: J. & J. Knapton): Digital version
- 1729 [English transl. by K. Basil after Jean Barbeyrac] (London: J. Walthoe, R. Wilkin): Digital version
- 1732 [French trans. by J. Barbeyrac] (Basle: Chez): Digital version
- 1734 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Amsterdam: Coup): Digital version
- 1740 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (London: Chez J. Nours): Digital version
- 1743 (Frankfurt: Knoch).
- 1744 (Frankfurt, Leipzig: Knoch).
- Vol. 1-5: Digital version
- Vol. 6-8: Digital version
- 1750 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Basle: Thourneisen): Digital version
- 1759 (Franfurt, Leipzig: Knoch).
- 1759 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Leide: Chez J. de Wetstein).
- 1771 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Basle Chez E. Thourneisen).
- 1924 (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- 1934 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, London: Milford), ed. James Brown Scott.
- 1934 [English trans. by C. H. and W. A. Oldfather] (London: Milford).
- 1967 (Frankfurt am Main: Minerva).
- 2001 [German trans. by J. N. Hertius after Jean Barbeyrac] (Hildesheim: Olms).
- 2014 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag), ed. Frank Böhling: Digital version

De officio hominis et civis iuxta legem naturalem, libri II (Lund: Junghans, Haberegger, 1673).
- 1682 (Cambridge: Hayes, Creed).
- 1684 (Hamburg: Liebezeit).
- 1689 (Hamburg: Liebezeit).
- 1691 [English trans. by Andrew Tooke] (London: Benj. Motte).
- 1693 (Hamburg: Liebezeit).
- 1695 (Hamburg: Liebezeit).
- 1696 (Utrecht: Broedelet).
- 1696 [French trans. by Antoine Teissier] (Berlin: Roger): Digital version
- 1698 [English trans. by Andrew Tooke] (London: Benj. Motte).
- 1700 (Frankfurt, Leipzig: Bonkce): Digital version
- 1700 (Utrecht: Broede).
- 1700/1701 (Stockholm: Volgenau).
- 1701 (Cambridge: Typis Academicis).
- 1702 (Marburg, Frankfurt: Kürsnerus, Böncke): Digital version
- 1702 (n.n.: Stockholm).
- 1705 (Frankfurt: Sande).
- 1705 [English trans. by Andrew Tooke] (London: Benj. Motte).
- 1707 (Frankfurt: Sande): Digital version
- 1707 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Amsterdam: Schelte).
- 1708 (London: J. Knapton).
- 1708 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Amsterdam: Chevalier).
- 1709 (Frankfurt: Sande).
- 1709 (Leipzig: Lanckisch).
- 1710 (Frankfurt: Maximilian).
- 1710 (Frankfurt: Sande).
- 1714 (Frankfurt: Sande): Digital version
- 1715 (Cambridge: J. Kanpton).
- 1715 (Frankfurt: Sande).
- 1715 (Leipzig: Lanckisch).Digital version
- 1715 [English trans. by Andrew Tooke] (London: B. Tooke).
- 1715 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Amsterdam: Coup).
- 1716 [English trans. by Andrew Tooke] (London: B. Tooke).
- 1717 (Leipzig, Wolfenbüttel: Apvd Godofredium Freytag): Digital version
- 1718 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Amsterdam: Coup).
- 1718 Review, in Journal des sçavans (Amsterdam: Rey, 1718), p. 276-286.
- 1719 Review, in Neue Bibliothec oder Nachricht und Urtheile von neuen Büchern und allerhand zur Gelehrsamkeit dienenden Sachen, vol. 9 (Frankfurt: Renger, 1719), p. 102-104.
- 1719 (Frankfurt: Sande).
- 1719 (Jena: Bielckius).
- 1721 (Jena: Bielckius): Digital version
- 1721 (Leipzig: Lanckisch).
- 1723 (Utrecht: Broedelet).
- 1723 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Amsterdam: Coup).
- 1724 (Edinburgh: Patron).
- 1726 (Leipzig: Meisner): Digital version
- 1728 (Utrecht: Broedelet).
- 1731 (Giessen: Krieger): Digital version
- 1734 (Frankfurt: Sande).
- 1734 (Leipzig: Lanckisch).
- 1734 (Leipzig: Meisner).
- 1735 (Cambridge: Thurlbourn).
- 1735 [English trans. by Andrew Tooke] (London: B. Motte).
- 1735 [French trans. by Jean Barbeyrac] (Amsterdam: Coup & Kuyper).
- 1737 (London: Thurlbourn).
- 1739 (Basel: Brandmüller): Digital version
- 1740 (Utrecht: Broedelet).
- 1741 (Giessen: Krieger): Digital version
- 1748 (London: Thurlbourn).
- 1751 (Leipzig: Lanckisch).
- 1753 (Frankfurt, Leipzig: Broenner): Digital version
- 1758 (Cambridge: Thurlbourn).
- 1758 (London: Thurlbourn).
- 1767 (Leipzig, Dresden: Michael Groell): Digital version
- 1769 (Leiden: Luchtman).
- 1927 (New York: Oxford UP), ed. James Brown Scott.
- 1991 [English trans. by Michael Silverthorne ed. James Tully] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- 1994 [German trans. by Klaus Luig] (Frankfurt am Main, Leipzig: Insel Verlag).
- 1997 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag), ed. Gerald Hartung.
- 2003 [English trans. by Andrew Tooke, ed. Ian Hunter and David Saunders] (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund): Digital version

Specimen controversiarum circa ius naturale ipsi nuper motarum (Uppsala: van der Mylen, 1678).
- 1678 (Osnabrugi: Schwänderus): Digital version
- 1680 (Frankfurt: Knochius, Wustius): Digital version
- 1682 (Frankfurt: Schrey & Meyer).

Historisch- und politische Beschreibung der geistlichen Monarchie des Stuhls zu Rom (Hamburg: Lichtenstein, 1679).
- 1714 (Halle: Renger): Digital version
- 1717 (Halle: Renger).

Einleitung zu der Historie der vornehmsten Reiche und Staaten, so itziger Zeit in Europa sich befinden (Frankfurt am Main: Knoche, Haass, 1682): Digital version
- 1683 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch): Digital version
- 1684 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1685 [French trans. by Claude Rouxel] (Cologne: Marteau).
- 1687 [French trans. by Claude Rouxel] (Utrecht: Ribbius).
- 1688 [Latin trans. by Johann Friedrich Cramer] (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch): Digital version
- 1688 [French trans. by Claude Rouxel] (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1689 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch): Digital version
- 1693 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1695 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch): Digital version
- 1695 [English. trans. by Jodocus Crull] (London: Gilliflower).
- 1697 [English. trans. by Jodocus Crull] (London: Gilliflower).
- 1699 [English. trans. by Jodocus Crull] (London: Gilliflower).
- 1699 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch): Digital version
- 1700 [English. trans. by Jodocus Crull] (London: Thomas Newborough).
- 1702 [English. trans. by Jodocus Crull] (London: Thomas Newborough).
- 1703 [French trans. by Claude Rouxel] (Utrecht: Schouten).
- 1705 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1706 [English. trans. by Jodocus Crull] (London: Thomas Newborough).
- 1709 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1710 [French trans. by Claude Rouxel] (Amsterdam).
- 1710 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1711 [English. trans. by ?] (London: Midwinter).
- 1715 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1719 [English. trans. by ?] (London: Peele).
- 1721 [French trans. by Estienne de LaChambre] (Amsterdam: Compagnie).
- 1728 [English. trans. by ?] (London: J. Knapton).
- 1729 [English. trans. by ?] (Dublin: Samuel Fair-Brother).
- 1731 [French trans. by Estienne de LaChambre] (Amsterdam: Compagnie).
- 1732 [French trans. by Estienne de LaChambre?] (Amsterdam: Compagnie).
- 1743 [French trans. by Estienne de LaChambre?] (Amsterdam: Compagnie).
- 1745 [French trans. by Estienne de LaChambre?] (Amsterdam: Compagnie).
- 1746 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch & Esslinger).
- 1748 [English trans. by Joseph Sayer] (London: Knapton).
- 1753 [English trans. by ?] (Dublin: William Williamson).
- 1753 [French trans. by Estienne de LaChambre?] (Paris: Merigot).
- 1759 [French trans. by Estienne de LaChambre?] (Paris: Merigot).
- 2013 [English trans. by Jodocus Crull, ed. Michael J. Seidler] (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund): Digital version

Einleitung zu der Historie Von dem Königreich Schweden (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch, 1686).
- 1750 (Frankfurt: Knoch).

Continuirte Einleitung zu der Historie der Vornehmsten Reiche und Staaten von Europa: Worinnen des Königreichs Schweden Geschichte (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch, 1686).
- 1689 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch): Digital version
- 1693 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1695 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch): Digital version
- 1709 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1719 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1730 (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch).
- 1732 [French trans. by ?] (Amsterdam: Chatelain).
- 1748 [French trans. by ?] (Amsterdam: Chatelain).
- 1782 [French trans. by ?] (Amsterdam: Chatelain).

Eris Scandica qua adversus libros de iure naturali et gentium obiecta diluuntur (Frankfurt am Main: Knoch, 1686): Digital version
- 2002 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag), ed. Fiammetta Palladini.

De habitu religionis christianae ad vitam civilem, liber singularis; accedunt animadversiones ad aliqua loca e politica Adriani Houtuyn ICti Batavi (Bremen: Schwerdfegerus, 1687): Digital version
- 1690 [French trans. by Antoine Teissier] (Utrecht, Schouten): Digital version
- 1692 (Bremen: Saurmannus): Digital version
- 1697 (Bremen: Saurmannus).
- 1706 (Bremen: Saurmannus): Digital version
- 1713 (Bremen: Saurmannus): Digital version
- 1727 (Bremen: Saurmannus): Digital version
- 2002 [English trans. by Jodocus Crull, ed. Simone Zurbuchen] (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund): Digital version
- 2016 (Berlin: De Gruyter Verlag), ed. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann.

Von Natur und Eigenschafft der Christl. Religion und Kirche in Ansehen des Bürgerlichen Lebens und Staats (Leipzig: Gleditsch; Zwickau: Bittorff, 1688): Digital version

Einleitung zur Sitten- und Stats-Lehre/ Oder kurtze Vorstellung der schuldigen Gebühr aller Menschen (Leipzig: Gleditsch, 1691): Digital version
- 1702 (Leipzig: Fritsch).

Aus den Schrifften des Hr. Sam. Pufendorfii Kurtzer aber Gründlicher Beweiß durch Vernunft und Erfahrung bestätiget/ Daß der Calvinismus mit einer Monarchie incompatible sey: Zu Bekräftigung der Warheit die D. Masius hievon in seinen Schrifften mit grossem Fug und Recht verthädiget/ Und zu Joh. Christoph. Becmans Confusion und Schande/ daß er sich einer so unläugbahren Warheit entgegen zusetzen unterstanden / Zum Druck befordert von Einem Warheit Liebenden (1692): Digital version

Ius feciale divinum sive de consensu et dissensu protestantium exercitatio posthuma (Lübeck, 1695).
- 1716 (Frankfurt: Harting).
- 2002 [English trans. by Theophilus Dorrington ed. Simone Zurbuchen] (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund): Digital version
- 2004 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag), ed. Detlef Döring.

Heiliges Religions-Recht: Darinnen angezeiget wird/ in welchen Lehr-Puncten die Protestanten einig sind oder nicht; Nach Seinem seel. Absterben heraus gegeben und nunmehr aus dem Lateinischen ins Teutsche übersetzet (Frankfurt an der Oder: Völcker, 1696).

Dissertations

Exercitatio de conciliatione animorum (Heidelberg: Walter, 1662), [Respondent: Johann Burkard von Lewenburg]: Digtal version [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 2025].

De obligatione adversus patriam (Heidelberg: Wyngaerde, 1663), [Respondent: Andreas von Ulcken]: Digital version [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Dissertatio super rebus gestis Philippi Amyntae F[ilii] (Heidelberg: Wyngaerde, 1664), [Respondent: Wilhelm Julius Coyet]: Digital version [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Dissertatio de existimatione (Heidelberg: Walter, 1667), [Respondent: Erich Teet]: Digital version [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Dissertatio de systematibus civitatum (Heidelberg: Walter, 1667), [Respondent: Daniel Christiernin], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Exercitatio academica de interregnis (Heidelberg: Walter, 1668), [Respondent: Gustav Horn], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Dissertatio de republica irregulari (Lund: Haberegger, 1668), [Respondent: Sibrand, Hermann], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Exercitatio academica de forma reip[ublicae] Romanae (Lund: Haberegger, 1668), [Respondent: Nicolaus Banner], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Dissertatio academica de fide (Lund: Haberegger, 1669), [Respondent: Israel M. Kolmodin], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Dissertatio academica de legibus sumtuariis (Lund: Haberegger, 1672), [Respondent: Daniel Lossius], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Disputatio inauguralis de concordia verae politicae cum religione Christiana (Lund: Haberegger, 1673), [Respondent: Caspar Hammerus], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Meletemata de religione naturali (Lund: Haberegger, 1673), [Respondent: Nicolaus Lundeberg], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 2025].

Dissertatio academica de statu hominum naturali (Lund: Haberegger, 1674), [Respondent: Herman Fleming], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].
- 1990 [English trans. by Michael J. Seidler] (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen).

Dissertationes academicae selectiores (Lund: Junghans, 1675).
- 1677 (Uppsala: n.n.).
- 1678 (Frankfurt, Leipzig: Weidmann).
- 2025 (Berlin: De Gruyter Verlag), ed. Michael J. Seidler: Digital version

Dissertatio politica de civitate (Lund: Schröder, 1676) [Respondent: Andreas Helman], [Also in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 2025].

Periodica and Other Works

Occasional Writings
Vorträge vor dem Collegium Anthologicum in Leipzig (1655–1658) [in KVS, IX, p. 1–86].

Gundaeus Baubator Danicus, sive examen nugarum atque calumniarum, quas senator regni Daniae Gundaeus Rosenkrantz in discursu De detentione legati Suecici Hafniae impudentissime spargit (Amsterdam: 1659), [in KVS, VII, p. 87–155, p. 181–182.].

Prodromus solidae et copiosae confutationis mox secuturae scripti nuper evulgati, cui titulus: Vindiciae secundum libertatem imperialem quorundam electorum, principum, et statuum etc. contra Palatinum Wildfangiatum (n.p.: 1665), [in KVS, VII, p. 108, 157–193, 343].

Addenda ad Christiani à Teuteburg, nobilis Franci, solida ac necessaria disquisitio de forma Imperii Romano-Germanici, ad Severini de Monzambano caput VI. Diss. de statu imp. Germ. (1668), [in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Addenda ad [Karl Scharschmidt], Disquisitio de republica monstrosa, contra Monzambano ejusque asseclas, Germanopoli (Hamburg: 1674) [in Dissertationes academicae selectiores 1675, 2025].

Brevis commentatio super ordinum religiosorum suppressione ad bullam Clementis IX. P.M. emissam anno 1668. d. 6. Decembris (Hamburg: n.y. [before 1675]), [in KVS, p. 195–233].

Discussio quorundam scriptorum Brandeburgicorum, quibus partim publico nomine, partim privato ausu s. regiae majestatis Sveciae consilia et actiones circa res Germaniae maligne traducuntur (n.p.: 1675), [in KVS, VII, p. 235–336, 350, 352, 354, 468].

Unvorgreifflich Bedencken über der deputirten von der Priesterschafft requeste wegen abschaffung der Cartesianischen Philosophie (1687–88), [in KVS, p. 388–447].

Epistolae duae super censura in Ephemeridibus Parisiensibus, et Bibliotheca Universali de quibusdam scriptorum locis lata (Leipzig: 1688), [in KVS, 449–506].

Dissertatio de foederibus inter Sueciam et Galliam (the Hague: 1708), [in KVS, p. 337–385].

Unvorgreiffliches Bedencken wegen Information eines Knaben von Condition (n.p.: 1721), [in KVS, p. 507–555].

Polemical Essays
Apologia pro se et suo libro, adversus autorem libelli famosi, cui titulus, Index quarundam novitatum, quas Dn. Samuel Pufendorf libro suo de Jure Naturae & Gentium contra orthodoxa fundamenta Londini edidit. Germanopoli (Hamburg: 1674) [in Eris Scandica, p. 11–56].

Epistola ad plur. reverendum atque celeberrimum virum Dn. D. Joh. Adamum Scherzerum, theologum apud Lipsienses primarium, super censura quapiam in librum suum inique lata, (Harderwijk: Cornelium van der Bucht, 1674), [in Eris Scandica, p. 59–68].

Appendix (to Epistola ad ... Scherzerum) [in Eris Scandica, p. 69–82].

Epistola ad amicos suos per Germaniam, super libello famoso, quem Nicolaus Beckmannus quondam professor in Academia Carolina, nunc vero cum infamia inde relegatus, mentito nomine Veridici Constantis superiori anno disseminavit (1676), [in Eris Scandica, p. 85–102].

Petri Dunaei [S.P.] p.t. in Academia Carolina pedelli secundarii epistola ad virum famosißimum, Nicolaum Beckmannum, totius Germaniae convitiatorem & calumniatorem longe impudentissimum, super novissimis ipsius scriptis. (Lund: 1678), [in Eris Scandica, p. 105–113].

Specimen controversiarum circa jus naturae ipsi nuper motarum (Osnabrück: Johann Georg Schwänder, 1678), [in Eris Scandica, p. 118–197].

Spicilegium Controversiarum, circa jus naturae ipsi motarum (Frankfurt: Frideric Knoch, Balthasar Christophor Wust, 1680), [in Eris Scandica, p. 202–238].

Julii Rondini [S.P.] Dissertatio epistolica super controversiis, quae Samueli Pufendorfio cum quibusdam aliis circa jus naturale intercesserunt (Hamburg: 1684) [in Eris Scandica, p. 241–257]

Commentatio super invenusto veneris Lipsicae pullo, Valentini Alberti professoris Lipsiensis calumniis & ineptiis opposita (Frankfurt am Main: Frideric Knoch, 1688), [in Eris Scandica, p. 262–292].

Josuae Schwartzii [S.P.], s.s. theol. doctoris, et p.t. superintend. generalis in ducatu Schleswicensi Dissertatio epistolica ad eximium unum juvencum Severinum Wildschyssium privignum suum (Sleswig: Johann Kakhuhn, 1688), [in Eris Scandica, p. 296–346].

Manuscript Sources

Correspondence

“Briefe von Pufendorf”, ed. Konrad Varrentrapp, Historische Zeitschrift N.F. 34 (1893), p. 1–51 and 193–232.

“Pufendorf-Briefe an Falaiseau, Friese und Weigel”, ed. Konrad Varrentrapp, HistorischeZeitschrift N.F. 37 (1894), p. 59–67.

Briefe Samuel Pufendorfs an Christian Thomasius. Pufendorf-Briefe an Falaiseau, Friese, und Weigel, ed. Joern Garber, Scriptor Reprints, Sammlung 18. Jahrhundert (Meisenheim am Glan: Hain, 1980).

Briefwechsel, ed. Detlef Döring, in Samuel Pufendorf Gesammelte Werke, ed. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1996).

“Ergänzungen zu Pufendorfs Briefwechsel”, in Eris Scandica und andere polemische Schriften über das Naturrecht, ed. Fiammetta Palladini, in Samuel Pufendorf Gesammelte Werke, ed. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, vol. 5 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002), p. 373–380.

Natural Law Network

Personal Connections

Herman Conring, Helmstedt [polyhistor; professor of natural philosophy, medicine, and politics at the University of Helmstedt; corresponded with Pufendorf]

Johann Friedrich Gronovius [classics professor at the University of Leiden; recommended Pufendorf for Heidelberg professorship; friend and correspondent]

Adam Rechenberg, Leipzig [professor of theology at the University of Leipzig; close friend and correspondent; aided in clandestine publication of Pufendorf’s works in Germany]

Johannes Scheffer, Stockholm [student of Straßburg professor Johann Boecler; Skytteanska professor of rhetoric, politics, and ius gentium at the University of Uppsala; occasional correspondent]

Philipp Jakob Spener, Berlin [Lutheran theologian, founder of Pietism; friend and spiritual advisor in Berlin; gave Pufendorf’s funeral sermon at the Nikolaikirche]

Christian Thomasius [professor and jurist at the University of Halle; close friend and correspondent, proponent of Pufendorf’s ‘secular’ approach against a theologised natural law]

Erhard Weigel, Jena [polymath, professor at Leipzig and Jena; teacher, friend, and correspondent]

References and Acknowledgement

Profile References

Literature

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Seidler, Michael J.: "‘Monstrous’ Pufendorf: Sovereignty and System in the Dissertations" in Monarchism and Absolutism in Early Modern Europe, ed. Cesare Cuttica and Glenn Burgess (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), ch. 11, p. 159–75.

Seidler, Michael J.: "Pufendorf and the Politics of Recognition" in Natural Law and Civil Sovereignty. Moral Rights and State Authority in Early Modern Political Thought, ed. Ian Hunter and David Saunders (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), p. 235–51.

Seidler, Michael J.: "Pufendorf’s Composite Method" in The Cambridge Companion to Pufendorf, ed. Knud Haakonssen and Ian Hunter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), ch. 3, p. 60–89.

Seidler, Michael J.: "‘Turkish Judgment’ and the English Revolution: Pufendorf on the Right of Resistance" in Samuel Pufendorf und die europäische Frühaufklärung. Werk und Einfluß eines deutschen Bürgers der Gelehrtenrepublik nach 300 Jahren (1694-1994), ed. Fiammetta Palladini and Gerald Hartung (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1996), p. 83–104.

Specht, Rainer: Erhard Weigels Philosophie. Denken und Werk eines Lehrers von Leibniz und Pufendorf (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 2023).

Tully, James: "Editor's Introduction" in On the Duty of Man and Citizen, ed. James Tully and Michael Silverthorne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. xiv–xl.

Welzel, Hans: Die Naturrechtslehre Samuel Pufendorfs (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1958).

Wolf, Erik: Grotius, Pufendorf, Thomasius: Drei Kapitel zur Gestaltungsgeschichte der Rechtswissenschaft (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1927).

Wolf, Erik: "Samuel Pufendorf" in Grosse Rechtsdenker der deutschen Geistesgeschichte, fourth, revised and enlarged edition (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1963), ch. 9, p. 306–66.

Zurbuchen, Simone: Naturrecht und natürliche Religion. Zur Geschichte des Toleranzproblems von Samuel Pufendorf bis Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1991).

Sources

Academic context
Academic context (Heidelberg): Drüll, Dagmar, Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon 1652–1802 (Berlin: Springer, 1991), p. 121–22.

Academic context (Lund): Ahnfelt, Paul, Lunds Universitets Historia, vol. 1 (Stockholm: Johann Beckman, 1859), esp. p. 179–225.

Academic context (Lund): Döbeln, Joh. Jac. von, Regiae academiae Lundensis historia a prima ejus aetate ad finem anni 1738 (Lund: Ludwig Decreaux, 1740).

Academic context (Lund): Rosén, Jerker, Lunds Universitets Historia I. 1668–1709 (Lund: CWK Gleerup, 1968), p. 52–63, 207–21.

Academic context (Lund): Staaf, Björn Magnusson, "The University during the Great Power Era 1666–1719" in Lund University over 350 Years. History and Stories, ed. Björn Magnusson Staaf, Fredrik Tersmeden, and Petra Francke (Lund: Lund university, 2016), p. 15–26.

Academic context (Lund): Ståhl, Magnus Laurentius, Biographiske underrättelser om professorervid kongl. universitetet i Lund, ifrån dess inrättning till närvarande tid (Christianstad: L. Littorius, 1834), p. 29–32.

Academic context (Lund): Weibull, Martin and Elof Tegnér, Lunds Universitets Historia 1668–1868, vol. 2 (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerups, 1868), p. 207–208, 213–216.

Lectures (Heidelberg): Benrath, Gustav Adolf, "Heidelberger Vorlesungsverzeichnisse aus den Jahren 1655, 1658 bis 1662, und 1685" in Heidelberger Jahrbücher 5 (1961): p. 85–102.

Lectures (Lund): Lund University Library, Elenchus lectionum, quas ... professores in Regiâ Gothorum Academiâ Carolinâ studiosæ juventuti publice & privatim proponere decreverunt. P. P. (Lund, 1671), Digital version.

Lectures (Lund): Bo Lindberg, ed. and trans., The Pufendorf Lectures. Annotations from the Teaching of Samuel Pufendorf, 1672–1674 (Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 2014).

Matriculation (Grimma): Christian G. Lorenz (ed.), Grimmenser-Album: Verzeichniss sämttlicher Schüler der Königlichen Landesschule zu Grimma (Grimma, 1850), p. 142.

Matriculation (Leipzig): Georg Erler (ed.), Die Iüngere Matrikel der Universität Leipzig 1559-1809, vol. 2: 1634-1709 (Leipzig: 1909), p. 342.

Matriculation (Jena): Reinhold Jauernig (ed.), Die Matrikel der Universität Jena, vol. 2: 1652-1723 (Weimar, 1961), p.608, Digital version; ThULB, Matrikel der Universität Jena 1652-1669, Digital version.

Matriculation (Leiden): Willem Nicolaas Du Rieu (ed.), Album Studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae, 1575-1875 (Nijhoff, 1875), col. 479.

Biographical & Bibliographical Information
Adlemansthal, Petronius Hartviggus [Dahlmann, Peter]: …Vita, Fama, et Fata Literaria Pufendorfiana. Oder denckwürdige Lebens-Mémoire des weltberuffenen Herrn Autoris [S.P.] (Leipzig: Weidmann, 1710).

Barbeyrac, Jean: "An Historical and Critical Account of the Science of Morality, and the Progress It Has Made in the World, from the Earliest Times…", trans. Basil Kennet in Samuel Pufendorf:Of the Law of Nature and Nations (Buffalo, NY: William S. Hein, 2005; repr. of London: S. Aris, 1729).

Breßlau, Harry: "Pufendorf, Samuel Freiherr von" AllgemeineDeutsche Biographie 26 (1888): 701–708, URL: https://www.deutschebiographie.de/pnd118597051.html#adbcontent

Böhling, Frank: "Samuel Pufendorf in Heidelberg, Lund, Stockholm und Berlin. Beiträge zu seiner Biographie mit Werkübersichten" in Samuel Pufendorf. De jure naturae et gentium. Dritter Teil: Materialien und Kommentar (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2014), p. 3–57.

Döring, Detlef: Pufendorf-Studien. Beiträge zur Biographie Samuel von Pufendorfs und zu seiner Entwicklung als Historiker und theologischer Schriftsteller (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1992), incl."Bibliographie" on p. 214–66.

Elgenstierna, Gustaf: Den introducerade Svenska adelns ättartavlor, 9 vols. (Stockholm: Kungl. Boktryckeriet P.A. Norstedt & Söner, 1931), vol. 6 (Posse – von Scheven), p. 76–77.

Glafey, Adam Friedrich: Vollständige Geschichte des Rechts der Vernunft ... nebst einer Bibliotheca Juris Naturae et Gentium (Aalen: Scientia Verlag, 1965; repr. of Leipzig 1739).

Hamburgische Bibliotheca, Der studirenden Jugend zum Besten zusammen getragen, Die zehnte Centuria, 10 vols. (Leipzig: Joh. Friedr. Gleditschens seel. Sohn, 1729), vol. 4, tom. 10, arts. 37–43, p. 123–49.

Heumann, Christoph August: "Fragmenta mssta. [manuscripta] aus der Historie Samuelis Pufendorfii" in Acta Philosophorum, das ist, gründl. Nachrichten aus der Historia Philosophica...,part 16 (Halle: Renger, 1725), §VII, p. 641–59.

Heumann, Christoph August: "Fragmenta mssta. aus der Historie Sam. Pufendorfii" in Acta Philosophorum, das ist, gründl. Nachrichten aus der Historia Philosophica ..., part 17 (Halle: Renger, 1726), §VII, p. 770–89.

Heumann, Christoph August: "Nachricht vom Samuele Pufendorfio" in Acta Philosophorum, das ist, gründl. Nachrichten aus der Historia Philosophica ..., part 18 (Halle: Renger, 1726), §IX, p. 949–57.

Hinrichs, Hermann Friedrich Wilhelm: Geschichte der Rechts- und Staatsprinzipien seit der Reformation bis auf die Gegenwart in historisch-philosophischer Entwicklung, 3 vols. (Aalen: Scientia Verlag, 1962; repr. of Leipzig 1850), vol. 2, p. 1–113.

Jenisch, D. (pastor ad aed. St. Nicolai Berolin.): "Laudatio Samuelis Pufendorfii" in Vitterhets historie och antiquitets akademiens handlingar, part 7 (Stockholm: Joh. Pehr Lindh, 1802), p. 215–32.

Lindberg, Bo: "Samuel Pufendorf, von", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, URL: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/artikel/7421, accessed 2025–08–12

Ludewig, Petrus de: "Eulogium Esaiae ac Samuelis Pufendorfiorum, laconice scriptum" in Opuscula oratoria … ob argumentorum praestantiam nunc primum cum auctibus edita (Halle: sumtu Novi Bibliopolii, 1721), §17, p. 463–88.

Luig, Klaus: "Pufendorf, Samuel Freiherr von" Neue DeutscheBiographie 21 (2003), p. 3–5; URL: https://www.deutschebiographie.de/pnd118597051.html#ndbcontent

Luig, Klaus: "Zur Verbreitung des Naturrechts in Europa" Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 60, no. 2 (1972), p. 539–57 (18th-century De officio editions).

Malmström, Oscar: Samuel Pufendorf och hans arbeten i Sverigen historia (Stockholm: Nordin & Josephson, 1991; repr. of Lund: E. Malmströms Boktryckeri, 1899).

Martinière, M. Bruzen de: "Éloge historique de monsieur le baron de Pufendorf" in Introduction à l’histoire moderne, generale et politique de lúnivers … commencée par le Baron de Pufendorf …, new edition, augmented by M. de Grace, vol. 1 (Paris: Merigot et al., 1753), p. i–xviii.

Meyer, Paul: "Samuel Pufendorf. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte seines Lebens" Abhandlung zum Jahresbericht der Fürsten- und Landesschule zu Grimma über das Schuljahr 1894–95, 1895, Progr. Nr. 550 (Grimma: Julius Schiertz, 1894), p. 31.

Niceron, Jean-Pierre: "Samuel de Pufendorf" in Memoires pour servir à l'histoire des hommes illustres dans la republique des lettres, avec un catalogue raisonné de leurs ouvrages, 43 vols. in 44 (Farnborough: Gregg International, 1969; repr of Paris: Briasson, 1732), vol. 18, p. 224–56

Othmer, Sieglinde C.: Berlin und die Verbreitung des Naturrechts in Europa. Kultur- und sozialgeschichtliche Studien zu Jean Barbeyracs Pufendorf-Übersetzungen und eine Analyse seiner Leserschaft (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1970).

Palladini, Fiammetta: La biblioteca di Samuel Pufendorf, Wolfenbütteler Schriften zur Geschichte des Buchwesens, vol. 32 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1999).

Palladini, Fiammetta: Discussioni seicentesche su Samuel Pufendorf. Scritti Latini: 1663–1700 (Milan: Societa d'editrice il Mulino, 1978).

Palladini, Fiammetta, "Samuel Pufendorf" in Manuale di filosofia del diritto. Teoria e storia del pensiero giuridico, eds. Tommaso Gazzolo and Stefano Petropaoli (Roma: Quodlibet, 2024), ch. 7, p. 149–66.

Samuelis Pufendorfii Apologia pro et suo libo adversus autorem libelli famosi cui titulus:Index quarundam novitatum…(Germanopolis [Hamburg], 1674).

Schmid, Andreas: "Katharina von Palthen [funeral: April 10, 1713]" in Adelige Leichen-Predigten (Berlin: Gotth. Schlechtinger, 1713), lit. ‘P’, vol. 1, #1, p. 1–20.

Seidler, Michael J.: "Pufendorf's Moral and Political Philosophy" in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online), 2021, URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/pufendorf-moral/

Siebenkäs, Johann Christian: "3. Leben des Freyherrn Samuel von Pufendorf" in Historisch-Litterarisch-Bibliographisches Magazin, part 1, ed. Johann Georg Meusel (Zürich: Johann Caspar Füchsly, 1788), p. 27–37.

Siebenkäs, Johann Christian: "II. Von den Schriften des Freyherrn Samuel von Pufendorf" in Historisch-Litterarisch-Bibliographisches Magazin, zweytes Stück, ed. Johann Georg Meusel (Zürich: Ziegler und Söhne, 1790), p. 22–64.

Spener, Philipp Jacob: "Samuel Pufendorf [funeral: Nov. 7, 1694]" in Adelige Leichen-Predigten (Berlin: Gotth. Schlechtinger, 1713), lit. ‘P’, vol. 2, #19, p. 779–838.

Treitschke, Heinrich von: "Samuel Pufendorf" in Historische und politische Aufsätze (Leipzig: G. Hirzel, 1897), chs. 17–18, p. 202–305.

Warmholtz, Carl Gustav: Bibliotheca historica Sveo-Gothica, vol. 5 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1967–68; repr. of Stockholm: Anders Jac. Nordström, 1790).

Portrait
Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg; Bilddatei: hd4895, URL: http://www.portraitindex.de/documents/obj/36004895

Acknowledgement

Profile Author:

Michael J. Seidler

How to Cite This Profile

Seidler, Michael J., "Samuel Pufendorf" in Natural Law 1625-1850: Database, ed. Mikkel Munthe Jensen (Erfurt, Gotha, Jena: ThULB, 2019-), URL: https://naturallawdatabase.thulb.uni-jena.de/database/natlaw_76

Pufendorf, Samuel (* 1632.01.08 † 1694.10.16)

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