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FIRST EDITION, 12th issue. Large 12mo, complete set of 19 books in 7 vols: pp. [4=half-title and t-p], 560; [4=half-title and t-p], 430, [2=blank leaf]; [4=half-title and t-p], 463, [1]; 596, [4=2 blank leaves]; [4=blank leaf and t-p], 549, [3]; [4= blank leaf and t-p], 1 large folding map, 42 [i.e. 442], [2=blank leaf], cxxxiv, [2=blank leaf], 5 final folding maps; [4], 358, [2=blank leaf]. Book 16 misbound at the end of the 6th vol., after Book 17 and 18. 6 plates of maps in total, all bound in the 6th vol.: a large folding world map at the beginning and 5 lovely small folding maps at the end (another world map, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas). First 4 vols with half-titles. Contemporary speckled (or "moucheté", in French) vellum, flat spines dyed in dark brown and divided in compartments by gilt-tooled fillets and ornamental rolls; gilt titles to faux labels, gilt-tooled tomaisons. Green silk bookmarks. Library paper labels with location number to spines. Just some very light abrasions to edges of the boards. A beautiful set, very rarely found complete and in fine condition like this one, of an early issue of this renowned work. Up to quite recently no classic bibliographer had managed to establish the exact number of editions of this work by the Abbé Raynal. In 2007, the "Annales de la Société d'Etudes Millavoises" published a crucial contribution to the study of this enormously popular work. Thanks to this study, which located 1200 copies in 1000 libraries worldwide, it is possible to establish that the present copy is the 12th issue of the first edition, which initially appeared in 1770 in Amsterdam. The study has catalogued the different typographical ornaments used in the 49 known editions and the form of their texts. By doing so, it was possible to divide the 49 issues in 4 main editions, or groups of editions identified by these dates: 1770, 1774, 1780, and 1820. The first 15 issues were printed between 1770 and 1773 and are all part of the 1770 group (as they show pretty much the same features, they are all identified as first editions): 2 printed in 1770, 3 in 1772, and 10 in 1773. The first 6 vols of this 12th issue were issued in Amsterdam and do not show the printer's name, while the 7th vol. was printed a year later, in 1774, at The Hague by Gosse. A few other copies of this edition are kept in the following libraries: Amiens (BM), Dijon (BM), Naples (BN), Nimes (BM), Paris (BNFF), Quimper (BM), Rodez (BM), and Saint Gal (B). A Jesuit priest, Raynal "was a French writer and propagandist who helped set the intellectual climate for the French Revolution. Raynal's most important work was the Histoire des deux Indes (History of the East and West Indies), a [.] history of the European colonies in India and America. The first edition appeared in 1770, followed by several expanded versions. It denounced European cruelty to colonial peoples, which it blamed on religious intolerance and arbitrary authority. The philosopher and encyclopaedist Denis Diderot is credited with writing many of the better passages, as well as the more radical historical interpretations. The work was extremely popular, going through 30 editions between 1772 and 1789, its radical tone becoming more pronounced in the later editions. In 1774 the History was placed on the Roman Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books, and in 1781 the authorities ordered Raynal into exile and decreed that his history be burned. He was allowed to return to France, but not to Paris, in 1784. His banishment from Paris was finally rescinded in 1790." (from "Guillaume-Thomas Raynal, abbé de Raynal", in ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA). Seller Inventory # ABE-1592668475385
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