Histoire philosophique et politique

7 volumes in-8, green morocco, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, gilt-stamped coat of arms at the center, smooth spine decorated with gilt rolls forming false bands and gilt floral ornaments, red morocco title and volume labels, gilt fillet on the edges, inner gilt roll, gilt edges.
Armorial binding of the period.

196 x 122 mm.

Diderot, Denis. Raynal, Guillaume Thomas. Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the Two Indies.
The Hague, Gosse, 1774.

First edition of “one of the key works of the crisis of the Ancien Régime”.

A previous, very abridged edition was published anonymously in 1772.

It is adorned with 7 superb engravings by Eisen in proof before letters, engraved by Baquois, De Launay, Masquelier, and Née, and with 7 folding maps, 3 of which are repeated. (Cohen, 854).

“A Jesuit born in Aveyron in 1753, Abbé Raynal moved to Paris and soon left the Church for Philosophy. He contributed to the Encyclopédie, the Mercure de France, and the Correspondance littéraire, and wrote commissioned works or propaganda books inspired by the French government:Histoire du Stathouderat (1747), Histoire du Parlement d’Angleterre (1748).”

“Raynal was commissioned to write a history of colonization, which might have been mere compilation had he not gathered around him a constellation of collaborators.

Diderot, Holbach, and Naigeon were in charge of the philosophical section.

Dutesta provided precise information on trade and customs in the Indies.

This commercial venture thus became a great political and philosophical treatise. These are, in fact, the adjectives featured in the title of the work, printed in 1770 and published anonymously in 1772: “Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the Two Indies” (that is, the Indies proper or East Indies, and America or West Indies).

An expanded second edition appeared in 1774 and a third, signed by Raynal and more radical due to Diderot’s contributions, in 1780.

It was both repression and glory for Abbé Raynal: the parliament condemned the work, the author had to go into exile, and he assumed the role of the persecuted philosopher.

“The History of the Two Indies in fact combines a conventional account of European explorations and commercial settlements in the world with, at times, a forceful denunciation of slavery and the exploitation of colonies by the metropolises. Borrowings from administrative memoirs and earlier treatises alternate with moments of revolutionary eloquence, often due to Diderot’s pen.

This textual montage ensured the remarkable success of the treatise, reprinted dozens of times at the end of the 18th century, before falling into oblivion and being resurrected only recently by academic critics as one of the key works of the crisis of the Ancien Régime” (En français dans le texte, no. 166).

Beautiful copy bound in contemporary morocco with the arms ofSimon-Pierre Mérard de Saint-Just (1747-1812), bibliophile, author of Fables and Licentious Tales. He gave up his position as Maître d’hôtel to the Count of Provence, the future Louis XVIII, in 1782, to devote himself to literature. He had adopted the motto: “Honor and Love.” He remained famous for the beauty of his library, for which he wrote a catalog published in 1783 by Didot, and he had married the woman of letters Anne Félicité d’Ormoy, who became his true literary accomplice. His fortune allowed him to call upon the great bookbinders of his time.

He declared: “The collection of my books is not large (when I have sometimes been reproached for having so small a library, I have always replied: it is still too large not to contain only good books), but I have made a point of procuring the finest copies of the most beautiful editions, not the oldest ones.”

From the library of André Bertaut (sale 1957, no. 167).

The twin copy of this one, bound with the arms of the Marquis d’Asfeld, a provenance less prestigious, was sold for €35,000 on 17 May 2010 (Ref: Livres précieux, no. 161).