Jean Bodin, the French philosopher, statesman, and early writer on economics, is known chiefly for four major systematic works: Method for the Easy Comprehension of History (Methodus ad Facilem Historiarum Cognitionem, Paris, 1566); Six Books of the Republic (Six Livres de la république, Paris, 1576); Universae Naturae Theatrum (The Theater of Nature; Lyons, 1596); and Heptaplomeres Sive Colloquium de Abditus Rerum Sublimium Arcanus (Dialogue of Seven Wise Men; Schwerin, 1857).

Although Bodin's life is only imperfectly known, he was probably born in Anjou into a Catholic family who sought social promotion through service to the king and in clerical charges. Through the help of his bishop, Bodin was admitted at an early age to the Carmelite friars of Angers, who sent him to their school in Paris. While in Paris he probably later studied under the lecteurs royaux instituted by Francis I, who personified for Bodin the...