Rousseau’s Emile, Rare 1762 First Edition— A Beautiful Copy In Contemporary Calf-Gilt 44. ROUSSEAU, J.J. Emile, ou de l’Education. Hague i.e. Paris, 1762. Four volumes. Octavo, contemporary full mottled brown calf gilt. $16,000. Click for more info First edition of one of Rousseau’s greatest works, a vastly influential philosophical novel whose “originality lay in the fact that it was the first comprehensive attempt to describe a system of education according to nature,” with five finely engraved illustrations after designs by Charles Eisen—a splendid copy in contemporary mottled calf-gilt. Emile expressed Rousseau’s primary philosophy of education, the core of which was his belief in encouraging a child to ask his own questions and in allowing a child to demonstrate his interest in a subject rather than forcing learning. “One may justly hail Rousseau as the discoverer of the child” (Curtis & Boultwood, 264). “Few books have had a greater immediate effect on English educational thought than Rousseau’s Emile” (Stewart & McCan, 23-8). The work was condemned by the Parliament of Paris in June, 1762. Emile proved very popular and was rapidly translated and printed throughout Europe. This copy has all four cancels, as usual. McEachern states that “copies of the octavo with cancellanda are exceedingly rare: I have located only one (Stuttgart) containing the two cancellanda of Volume I, and none at all containing the two cancellanda of Volume II.” Volumes II-IV bound with half titles; no half title was issued for Volume I. Text in French. McEachern, 7381, 1A. Contemporary ink ownership stamp (“Bourlamaque”) to title pages. Printed booklabels (“D.D. Bernard et Auger”). Early ink inscription. Occasional spot of foxing, text generally quite clean and crisp, a few minor rubs to extremities, contemporary bindings quite sound and very handsome, gilt bright. A splendid copy of this rare landmark of education and philosophy. February 2022 – 45 – Bauman Rare Books
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