Why it matters

Pothier is arguably the single most influential French legal mind of the 18th century — not because his own work was flashy, but because it was so systematic and clearly reasoned that it became the direct template for how French law got codified a generation later. When Napoleon's jurists sat down to draft the Code Civil, Pothier's treatises weren't background reading; they were working source material, lifted from almost verbatim in places. This particular treatise takes on a genuinely tricky legal category: aleatory contracts, meaning any agreement where the outcome depends on chance — insurance, annuities, and, directly, wagers. Pothier's inclusion of a dedicated treatise on gambling within this same legal framework is exactly the point: 18th-century law didn't yet have a clean way to separate "legitimate risk-sharing" from "a bet," and Pothier was one of the people doing the intellectual work of drawing that line. Two and a half centuries later, insurance law still runs on distinctions he helped articulate.

Why we're looking

A lifetime-imprint Pothier treatise on chance contracts and gambling at $195 is the kind of intellectually substantial 18th-century law book that often trades below its interest level. That said, no priced comparable copy turned up in search — the 1767-edition dealer listings I found (Librairie RAIMOND, Librairie Devaux, Paris Libris) show the market for the text exists but none displayed an asking price, so relative value here is unconfirmed.

Watch out for

The listing gives essentially no physical description — no binding, no page count, no condition statement, and no imprint details — so ask the seller for the full title page, collation, and photographs of the boards, spine, and hinges before committing. Note also that the original edition of this treatise was 1767, so a 1770 imprint is a later or "nouvelle" edition rather than the first; the listing does not claim first edition, but the distinction matters if the buyer assumes one. Confirm the Traité du jeu section is actually present and complete in this copy, since the listing asserts it without stating where it falls in the volume.