DE L'ESPRIT

1758. [HELVETIUS, Claude-Adrien]. DE L'ESPRIT. Nouvelle edition. Revue et corrigee sur un Exemplaire non chatre de la premiere Edition. Paris: Chez Durand, libraire, 1758. Two octavo volumes. Vol. I: [4],xiv,318 pp.; Vol. II: xiii,334 pp. Contemporary bindings; full calf, gilt labels and decoration at spine, all edges speckled red. Large armorial bookplate at front pastedown of each volume. Except for occasional light foxing, the volumes are clean internally. Bookblocks are lightly foxed at exposed edges and are dust-soiled at top-edges. The bindings are a bit edgeworn, with shallow loss at spinal ends. The top joint of volume one and the lower joint of volume two are cracked (though the boards are still attached); and the other boards have been professionally re-hinged. One spine label is missing and another is nicked. The leather was varnished at one point and the finish has rubbed off in some places. Very good overall. Helvetius (French, 1715-71) was one of the encyclopedistes and De l'esprit is his major work. It was written as a response to Montesquie's L'Esprit de lois and was first printed in 1758. It attracted immediate attention and aroused formidable opposition because of its utilitarian philosophy. The Sorbonne, the Parlement of Paris, the Pope, the Bishop of Paris, as well as various other bishops, condemned the book. It was even publicly burned by the hangman. The attendant controversy caused it to be widely read and many editions were printed within a short time to satisfy the demand. This is a later edition by the publisher of the original edition, printed the same year as the first edition. (Smith, "The Publication of Helvetius's De l'espirit," in French Studies, Vol. 18, pp. 332-44).