Sep 17, 2009 - Sale 2186

Sale 2186 - Lot 270

Unsold
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(CHILE.) [Egaña, Juan.] Constitucion Politica del Estado de Chile, Promulgada en 29 de Diciembre de 1823. 4to, later calf; browned, some leaves reinforced at inner margin. Santiago, [1823?]
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An early constitution from independent Chile, written in the wake of the departure of autocratic revolutionary leader Bernardo O'Higgins. "Chile drifted gently from one political experiment to the next. The first and most improbable of these was the Constitution of 1823. Its author, Juan Egaña, was one of the two or three best-read Creole intellectuals of the time. . . . His moralistic conservatism (based on an extreme admiration for ancient Greece and Rome, the Incas, and imperial China) struck a somewhat discordant note at a time of mounting liberalism. The constitution was far too complex to be applied to Chile (or anywhere else)"--Collier & Sater, History of Chile, pages 48-49. The constitution and its 277 articles were tossed aside the following year. Palau 59709.