A Colle, et se trouve à Paris, chez Froullé, 1788.
4 parts in 4 volumes 8vo [193 x 123 mm] of : I/ (2) ll., xvi pp., 383 pp., (1) errata p. ; II/ (2) ll., 259 pp. ; III/ (2) ll., 292 pp. ; IV/ (2) ll., 366 pp. Library stamps on the titles.
Marbled roan, blind-stamped fillet around the covers, flat spines decorated with gilt fleurons and arms at the head, library label at the foot of the spines, red morocco lettering pieces, red edges. Slight signs of wear. Contemporary binding.
First edition.
“Curious collection, mainly with regard to the history of independence and the government of this country”. Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, n°952.
“Very accurate compilation that refutes Mably and Raynal’s theories and forms a precious directory of information of all kind about the United States”. Fay, Bibliographie des ouvrages français relatifs aux Etats-Unis 1770-1800, page 25.
This work is the result of Mazzei and Condorcet’s collaboration.
Mazzei was an Italian migrant in America before the revolution and that settled in Virginia. He was very close to Thomas Jefferson who, being the President, sent him on mission near the Great Duke of Tuscany.
Condorcet wrote the Lettres d’un bourgeois de New-Heaven sur l’unité de la législation et Réflexions touchant l’influence de la révolution de l’Amérique sur l’Europe par un habitant obscur de l’ancien hémisphère.
« The only book of that time to contain a collection of information absolutely true about the United States, is Mazzei’s big work : ‘Recherches historiques et politiques sur les Etats-Unis de l’Amérique’… This enormous work in four parts is a methodical and careful rebuttal of every mistake that was said or written about the United States… His book is important… He also shows that, if we had wanted, we could have had in France an accurate knowledge of the United States, of their social, political and moral conditions. Mazzei refutes one after the other Hilliard d’Auberteuil, the illustrious Mably, the great Raynal and the newspapers. »
Fay, Bibliographie des ouvrages français relatifs aux Etats-Unis 1770-1800, page 65.
Fine copy coming from the castle of la Roche-Guyon, with the arms of Louis-Armand, Duke of la Rochefoucauld (1732-1792), the translator of the Constitutions des treize Etats-Unis de l’Amérique (the Constitution of the United States).
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