A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.

Noteworthy treatises

• Treatises have been written by various philosophers:

• * Xenophon—Oeconomicus

• * Aristotle—various treatises

• * Chanakya—Arthashastra

• * Claudius Ptolemaeus—Almagest

• * Nizam al-Mulk—Siyasatnama (The Book of Government)

• * Niccolò Machiavelli—The Prince, and Discourses on Livy

• * René Descartes—Treatise on the World and Compendium Musicae

• * John Locke—Two Treatises of Government

• * David Hume—A Treatise of Human Nature

• * Adam Smith—The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations

• * Joseph Priestley—Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit

• * William Godwin—Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness

• * Karl Marx—Das Kapital

• Other well-known treatises include:

• * Sun Tzu—The Art of War

• * Euclid—Elements

• * Ptolemy—Geography (Treatise on cartography)

• * Geoffery Chaucer—The Parson's Tale

• * Thomas Paine—Rights of Man, Common Sense, and The Age of Reason

• * Charles Darwin—On the Origin of Species

• Treatises on art:

• * Shitao—Hua Yu Lu (Treatise on the Philosophy of Painting)

• Treatises on architecture:

• * Vitruvius—De architectura

• * Leon Battista Alberti—De re aedificatoria

• * Andrea Palladio—I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura

• Treatises on music:

• * Jean-Philippe Rameau —Treatise on Harmony

• * Hector Berlioz—Treatise on Instrumentation (sometimes, Treatise on Orchestration)

• Recent economics treatises have also been written:

• * Ludwig Von Mises—Human Action

• * Paul Samuelson—Foundations of Economic Analysis

• * Milton Friedman—Capitalism and Freedom

• * Murray Rothbard—Man, Economy, and State

• * George Reisman—Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics

See also

• Legal treatise