Gibbon

1779 · rif. 166741 — Paris: Chez la veuve Duchesne 1779. A rival view of the virtues of republican Rome First edition from the Lausanne library of Edward Gibbon with the earlier simpler form of his bookplate on the front pastedown. Butel-Dumont's views on the virtues of republican Rome differ widely from Gibbon's and might indeed have been taken as a direct criticism of them Gibbon's landmark history having first appeared just three years before in 1776. Georges-Marie Butel-Dumont 1725-1788 was a great admirer of English political economy. He was one of the first in France to write extensively about the British North American colonies in his Histoire et commerce des colonies anglaises 1755; in the same year he published a translation and enlargement of John Cary's Essay on the State of England 1695 as Essai sur l'état du commerce d'Angleterre. The present volume represents his last published work continuing the overarching argument of his Theory of Luxury 1771. "Not only did the modern world order require an overthrow of antiquated moralities but it entailed a concomitant overthrow of nostalgia for the ancient world itself. Rome had been but a brutish vampire state that no agrarian virtue could redeem no matter what the Fénelonians argued. Romans had preyed on the industry of others and one could only pray to 'heaven' that such a nation never appeared again on the 'face of the earth'" Reinert p. 185. Provenance: 1 Edward Gibbon 1737-1794 with his first state bookplate from his Lausanne library; 2 purchased in 1796 by William Beckford 1760-1844 who famously bought Gibbon's whole Lausanne library "to have something to read"; 3 by gift from Beckford to Gibbon's physician Dr Frederic Schöll d. 1835; 4 sold by him in 1825 to John Walter Halliday residing near Geneva; 5 Halliday's house and library acquired by Charles Bedot; 6 by descent to his son the marine biologist Maurice Bedot 1859-1927; 7 sold at auction 20 Dec 1934 Sotheby's to Maggs; 8 Sir John Russell 1872-1965 for the Rothamsted Experimental Station library for its agricultural content with discreet ink acquisition number dated 1937 and circular inkstamp of Rothamsted Experimental Station to front pastedown. Octavo 199 x 125 mm. Contemporary tan polished calf smooth spine richly gilt in compartments red morocco label brown edges. Front joint a little tender occasional trivial mark to contents else a fine copy. Keynes Gibbon's Library p. 84. Sophus A. Reinert Translating Empire: Emulation and the Origins of Political Economy 2011. unknown