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Chez Marc Michel Rey, Amsterdam, 1762; three volumes, 12mo, 105 x 168mm; pp engraved frontispiece after Pigalle, series title, xii, 412, 58, engraved frontispiece after Eisen, xxii, 185, xiv, [15] to 232, half title and title, viii, 202, [ii], half title, 134, [135-136], xxxvi; polished mottled calf, corners rubbed and four (of six) spine labels missing, all joints cracked but generally firm other than the front joint of volume 1 which is close to breaking; internally tight and clean throughout; occasional very neat contemporary annotations in English to the text. . . . . . The title page of Du Contract (sic) Social; ou Principes du Droit Politique. carries the drawing by the Swiss artist Benjamin Samuel Bolomey of Justicia with her scales held high in her right hand, a pike surmounted with a hat in her left, and a cat at her feet, engraved on copper by Charles-Ange Boily. The work, complete in itself, comprises the first part of volume 3 and runs to 202pp followed by a 2pp catalogue of books published by Rey. . . . . . The second part of the volume, twice separately paginated, comprises Rousseau?s essay addressed to Christophe de Beaumont [Archbishop of Paris] in response to the condemnation of Emile (published in May 1762) and identified as Seconde Edition Corrigée par L?Auteur ? MDCCLXIV (134pp + 2pp book catalogue). This is followed in turn by Arrest de la Cour de Parlement ? Extrait des Registres du Parlement du 9 Juin 1762, and also de Beaumont?s condemnation of Rousseau?s Emile, ou de l?Education, (xxxvi pp). de Beaumont?s Mandement against Emile is printed by the Queen?s printer, C F Simon and dated 1762. . . . . . The 12mo edition of Du Contrat Social appeared six weeks after the first (octavo) edition and is somewhat scarcer. It exists in variant forms both as part of the collected works (here correctly with a half title identifying the volume and the sheet of Rey-published titles following the conclusion) and separately bound from what appear to be the same sheets but typically with a different second part. The publishing history is unclear but it?s suggested that Rey reacted to the unexpected success of Rousseau?s work and either had bound up or sold to another publisher for binding some of the sheets intended for the collection of Rousseau?s works he was then publishing. See Conlon Ouvrages Français Relatifs À Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1751-1799 for more detail. . . . . . The other volumes contain in addition the following works among several others: Discours ? a L?Académie de Dijon ? 1750; Lettre à M Grimm; Narcisse, ou l?Amant ? Comédie; Lettre sur la Musique françoise; Discours sur l?Economie Politique; Extrait du Projet de Paix Perpetuelle ? ; Discours sur l?Origine ? de l?Inegalité parmi les Hommes ? 1762; ? A M d?Alembert ? sur son Article Genève ? MDCCLXII.
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