[Rarebooks] fa: BANNED & BURNED FOR BLASPHEMY: Francois-Vincent Tossaint's LES MOEURS - 1748

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

On eBay now, along with a number of other 18th-century French titles  
in period bindings, ending Sunday, Feb. 8. More details and photos can  
be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name  
arch_in_la.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZarch_in_la

Merci,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[Francois-Vincent Toussaint]: Les Moeurs. [no place or publisher],  
1748. First or early printing. Hardcover 12mo (17 x 10 cm) in full  
period mottled calf, raised bands, with spine and morocco spine label  
stamped in gilt, marbled endpapers, page edges dyed red; [32] + 474  
pp.; engraved frontispiece, title-pages and vignettes, woodcut  
decorations. Peignot, Livres condamnés, ii, 162-3.

With anywhere from three to sixteen separate editions issued in the  
first year of publication, establishing precedence is difficult, but  
this copy matches the collation for the first issue (1748a) listed in  
the extensive bibliography by Martin Anton Muller at http://www.encore.at/mam/toussaint/ 
.

Toussaint (1715-1772) was a French writer, publisher and translator  
whose fame rests entirely on a single book, Les Moeures [Manners], a  
philosophical study of ethics and public conduct which advocated a  
"natural morality" independent of religious belief. Despite being  
condemned for impiety and blasphemy by the French parliament and  
publicly burned (or perhaps because of this), the work was  
phenomenally popular and widely read throughout the 18th century. The  
book is divided into three parts: De la piete, De la sagesse, and Des  
vertus sociales (piety, wisdom, social virtues), and each part has its  
own title-page and unique engraved vignette. The frontispiece depicts  
a dagger-clutching Vice under the heel of a triumphant Virtue.

Light wear to the boards and rubbing to the spine, front hinge cracked  
but board is secure; early ink signature on the title-page ("Ex- 
libris / Armondi [?] /Chevalier"); a hint of light age-toning and a  
few very occasional small spots to the leaves; otherwise contents are  
exceedingly clean and fresh, firmly bound. A handsome example of an  
uncommon book: OCLC Worldcat locates no copies of this edition in any  
U.S. libraries.