ABSTRACT
This chapter studies the publication of the two 1633 Elzevir editions of Mare liberum. It provides a case study of the role of early modern European printers in the translation and cross-cultural dissemination of ideas about commerce and the law of nations. Drawing on the aims and methods of the Grotius Census Project at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, this chapter sheds light on the printing history, typographical features, and the bibliographical details of these texts. In the case of the 1633 editions of Mare liberum, the Elzevir press drew on the commercial appeal and the political potential of the text to translate, reinvent, and reconfigure its context and its uses.
