Although The Present State of Germany wasfirst made available in English over three centuriesago, it has been virtually unavailable in English sincethe period of the American Founding.By 1696, Pufendorf was well known in England as astaunch defender of the Protestant cause and as one ofthe renovators of natural law. His writings were familiarto such luminaries as Locke and figured prominently inJames Tyrells Patriarcha non Monarcha (1681).The editor of this volume, Michael J. Seidler,describes this work of Pufendorf as an account ofGerman constitutional law detailing the historicalrelations between the Emperor and the Estates as wellas an examination of the legitimating foundations ofImperial authority, a general analysis of the natureand requirements of political sovereignty, and areconceptualization of the different forms of politicalorder. Its central distinction between so-calledregular and irregular states, resting on the questionof the locus of sovereignty, demotes the traditionalpolitical categories into mere administrativepossibilities and thereby creates a more generalproblematic of freedom and authority with which weare still wrestling today. That is, it raises, at a very earlystage in the contractarian tradition which we haveinherited, the basic question of how effective politicalunity is compatible with competing values of diversityand individual liberty.Samuel Pufendorf (16321694) was one of the most important figures in early-modern political thought.

Anexact contemporary of Locke and Spinoza, he transformed the natural law theories of Grotiusand Hobbes, developed striking ideas of toleration and of the relationship between church andstate, and wrote extensive political histories and analyses of the constitution of the German empire.Edmund Bohun (16451699) was an English press license official and political writer who ended up as chief justice of South Carolina.Michael J. Seidler is Professor ofPhilosophy at Western KentuckyUniversity.Knud Haakonssen is Professor ofIntellectual History at the University ofSussex, England.