Ensayo sobre el principio de la poblacion,: Traduccion de los señores D. José Maria Noguera y D. Joaquin Miquel. Bajo la direccion del Doctor Don Eusebio Maria del Valle, Catedrático de Economia Politica en la Universidad de Madrid.

Madrid: D. Lucas Gonzalez y Compañíá,, 1846. An important step in Malthus's reception First edition in Spanish of the Essay on Population, handsomely bound preserving the original wrappers. " The Essay's translation into Spanish in 1846 was an important step in Malthus's reception. It was published in Madrid by Lucas González, first in instalments, and then in a single volume. The basis for the translation was the 1845 French version (from the English 1817 edition), published by Guillaumin in Paris. The sponsor and editor was Eusebio María del Valle, a professor of political economy at the University of Madrid, who supervised the work of the translators, his disciples, José María Noguera and Joaquín Miguel. The translation included an introduction by Rossi and Malthus's preface to the second edition, both from the French 1845 edition, and a few comments by the translators (probably Valle himself) in footnotes. Other ancillary texts and notes from the French version were absent from the Spanish translation, including many notes by Malthus himself. References were often oddly absent or incomplete. Rossi's introduction deserves some attention, because while sympathetic to Malthus, it contained ideas with which the Spanish public could easily agree. Rossi placed himself halfway between the 'exaggerated consequences and unreasonable abstractions' of both Malthus's admirers and detractors. He accepted that human fecundity was higher than that of land, stressing the effects of diminishing returns, but added that there was no reason to fear overpopulation, as land was still abundant: in many occasions the problem was not scarcity of land, but the fact that institutions and regulation do not allow expansions in production. In any case, Rossi advised using positive checks. All in all, Malthus's true system was 'constant work, order and economy, persistent prudence and great morality'. Alternative systems were chimerical promises of equality" (Faccarello & Masashi Izumo, p. 295). Octavo (202 x 129 mm). Late 20th-century green morocco by Galvan of Cadiz, ornately decorated with brown and red onlays and blind, black and gilt embellishment, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Housed in green morocco-entry slipcase. Leaves in gatherings 19 and 20 bound out of sequence but collates complete. Contents with light spotting and toning but generally clean. An excellent copy. Carpenter XXXII (16); Kress C. 6899; not in Goldsmiths' or Einaudi. Gilbert Faccarello & Masashi Izumo, Malthus Across Nations, 2020.