Skip to Content

SMITH, ADAM.

Recherches sur la Nature et les Causes de la Richesse des Nations. Traduit de l'Anglois de M. Smith [by Blavet]. 2 Tomes.

Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn42376
Londres, Pierre J. Duplain, 1788. 8vo, Two nice uniform contemporary full calf bindings with gilt spines. Some loss of leather to back hinge and lower capital of volume one and minor loos of leather to spine of volume two, all due to worming. Worming is not bad and does not affect anything but outer layer of small parts of the bindings. Apart from the worming a very nice, fresh and clean copy indeed. (8), IV, 503; (4), 496 pp. With both half-titles, the advertisment, both prefaces and the table of contents.

Rare early French translation of Adam Smith's political and economic classic, the "Wealth of Nations". Translated by Blavet. The present edition constitutes the third reprint of the second French translation. The second French translation was done by Blavet and is the first translation into French of which the translator and publisher are known. "The reprint of Blavet's version appeared at Yverdon in 1781 in 6 volumes 12mo, and at Paris in the same year in 3 volumes 12mo, and again at London and Paris in 1788 in 2 volumes 8vo [the present edition], and revised and corrected, with Blavet's name as translator, at Paris An, ix (1800-01) in 4 volumes 8vo.He [Blavet] had no intention of publishing it until his friend M. Ameilhon happened to complain of scarcity of interesting articles for his Journal de l'Agriculture, du Commerce, des Arts et des Finances, which had just come under the control of the Mercantilist. It struck him that he might offer it to him which he did, with the explanation that it was far from perfect. It was accepted, and appeared in the issues of the Journal between January, 1779, and December 1780. He did not anticipate that it would go further. The edition of 1788 likewise appeared without his knowledge or consent, and was still more marred by errors than that of Yverdon". (Lai, Cheng-chung. Adam Smith Across Nations: Translations and Receptions of The Wealth of Nations, Clarendon Press, UK, 2000). Hailed as the "first and greatest classic of modern thought" (PMM 221), Adam Smith's tremendously influential main work has had a profound impact on thought and politics, and is considered the main foundation of the era of liberal free trade that dominated the nineteenth century. Adam Smith (1723-1790) is considered the founder of Political Economy in Britain, mainly due to his groundbreaking work, the "Wealth of Nations" from 1776. The work took him 12 years to write and was probably in contemplation 12 years before that. It was originally published in two volumes in 4to, and was published later the same year in Dublin in three volumes in 8vo. The book sold well, and the first edition, the number of which is unknown, sold out within six months, which came as a surprise to the publisher, and probably also to Smith himself, partly because the work "requires much thought and reflection (qualities that do not abound among modern readers) to peruse to any purpose." (Letter from David Hume, In: Rae, Life of Adam Smith, 1895, p. 286), partly because it was hardly reviewed or noticed by magazines or annuals. In spite of this, it did evoke immense interest in the learned and the political world, and Buckle's words that the work is "in its ultimate results probably the most important book that has ever been written", and that it has "done more towards the happiness of man than has been effected by the united abilities of all the statesmen and legislators of whom history has preserved an authentic account" (History of Civilisation, 1869, I:214) well describes the opinion of a great part of important thinkers then as well as now. Considering the groundbreaking views presented in "Wealth of Nations", it comes as no surprise that the work was considered part of the revolutionary cultural development in France. As Adam Smith's friend, the Marquis of Lansdowne, said after quoting Smith's work: "With respect to French principles, as they had been denominated, those principles had been exported from us to France, and could not be said to have originated among the population of the latter country." (Quoted in: Rae, p. 291). The ideas of Adam Smith were often considered so dangerously closely connected with French ideas at the time that the term "political economy" almost became synonymous with questions concerning the constitution of governments. "The French Revolution seems to have checked for a time the growing vogue of Smith's book and the advance of his principles in this country, just as it checked the progress of parliamentary and social reform, because it filled men's mind with a fear of change, with a suspicion of all novelty, with an unreasoning dislike of anything in the nature of general principle." (Rae, p. 293). There can be no question that this seminal work greatly influenced French opinion at the time.
Address:
Silkegade 11
DK-1113 Copenhagen
Denmark
Phone:
CVR/VAT:
DK 16 89 50 16

Recently Added From Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S

Anmärkiningar Om biåsestenen. (In:
More Photos
BERGIUS, PETER JONAS
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62692
(Stockholm, 1777). 8vo. As extracted from "Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar", uncut unopened. Fine and clean. Pp. 304-309.
Defensio regia pro Carolo I. Ad Sereniss. Magnae…
More Photos
SAUMAISE; CLAUDE.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62707
(Leiden, Netherlands), Sumptibus Regiis, 1649. 12mo. In contemporary full calf with four raise bands and richly gilt spine. Edges of boards gilt. Previous owner's name to title-page. Worm-tract throughout, otherwise internally nice and clean. 444 pp.
Pierre Simon Laplace 1749-1827. A Determined…
More Photos
HAHN, ROGER.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62703
Cambridge (MA), Harvard University Press, 2005. 8vo. In the original full cloth publisher's binding with title to spine. With the original dust jacket. Ownership signature to inside of front board. Internally clean. X, (1), 310 pp.
Medicinische und philosophische Schrifften von…
More Photos
ALBERTI, MICHAEL.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62695
Halle im Magdeburgischen, Hendel, 1721. 8vo. In contemporary full calf with four raise bands and richly gilt spine. Traces from old paper-label to upper part of spine. Leather on spine cracked, spine-ends slightly chipped. Internally nice and clean. (14), 620, (28) pp. First collected edition of Alberti’s essays. Alberti (1682–1757), professor of medicine and philosophy at Halle and later rector of the university, was a leading disciple of Georg Ernst Stahl who considered the soul as having control on the body. Therapies involved dealing with the internal senses and feelings.
More info
Tale i Anledning af hans Kongelige Høihed…
More Photos
BUGGE, THOMAS.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62706
Kiøbenhavn, Møller, (1774). 8vo. In contemporary full sprinkled calf with five raised bands and gilt ornamentation to spine. Edges of boards gilt. All edges coloured in red. Old paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Head of spine chipped. Internally very nice and clean, printed on good paper. 24 pp.
O Capital. (i.e. Portuguese:
More Photos
MARX, CARLOS [KARL] (+) GABRIELLE DEVILLE (+) [Translator:] ALBANO DE MORAES.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62679
Lisboa, De Francisco Luiz Goncalves, 1912. 8vo. In the original red printed cloth-binding with black and white lettering. Spine with loss of the white lettering. Paper-label pasted on to lower inner margin of front board. Very light wear to extremities, Internally very fine and clean. 240 pp. The exceedingly scarce first Portuguese edition of the most important abridged version of Marx's Capital ever to have appeared, published fifty-six years before the first full Portuguese (but published in Brazil) translation and whole sixy-two years before the first full translation published in Portugal. Curiously, two translations of the present work were made 1912 but the present translation seems to have priority (see Bastien, "Readings and Translations of Karl Marx in Portugal"). After the 1933 rise of Salazar's dictatorial Estado Novo regime, suppression of the relatively newly founded Communist party grew. Members were arrested, tortured, and executed and many were sent to the Tarrafal concentration camp in the Cape Verde Islands. Communist literature suffered an equally repressive fate, hence the rarity of the present work. Marxism and especially Marxist writing caught on comparatively late in Portugal: "As for the Socialist Party - supposed to be the main expression of Marxism -, it revealed itself unable to stimulate effective theoretical and doctrinal efforts. Its existence was an example of ambiguity and inconsequence. Its political programme went on mixing Marxian elements, associationist tradition and positivist thinking. Its strategy balanced continuously between an alliance with republican politicians and the maintenance of political autonomy. Its tatics balanced between electoral abstencionism and an involvement in election processes, that never led it to a relevant position in parliament. Even its international relations showed a lasting ambiguity: it had been created according to the instructions of the Marxist majority at the Hague Congress, when most of its members tended to support political abstencionism. When the formation of the Second lnternacional was taking place in Paris in 1889 Portuguese socialists tried to join the Marxist congress, after being present at the possibilist congress. In 1920 they decided to join the Third lnternacional (what was not accomplished), at the same time that an internal reformist turn was taking place." (Bastien, "Readings and Translations of Karl Marx in Portugal"). "The epitome, here translated, was published in Paris, in 1883, by Gabriel Deville, possibly the most brilliant writer among the French Marxians. It is the most successful attempt yet made to popularize Marx's scientific economics. It is by no means free from difficulties, for the subject is essentially a complex and difficult subject, but there are no difficulties that reasonable attention and patience will not enable the average reader to overcome. There is no attempt at originality. The very words in most cases are Marx's own words, and Capital is followed so closely that the first twenty-five chapters correspond in subject and treatment with the first twenty-five chapters of Capital. Chapter XXVI corresponds in the main with Chapter XXVI of Capital, but also contains portions of chapter XXX. The last three chapters-XXVII, XXVIII, and XXIX-correspond to the last three chapters-XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII-of Capital." (ROBERT RIVES LA MONTE, Intruductory Note to the 1899 English translation). Capital de Marx also had a Portuguese edition at this time, or better, two different editions, both in 1912, but only in translation of the survey of Book I published in France by Gabriel Deville in 1883 (Marx, 1912a and Marx, 1912b). This version omitted material dealt with in at least four chapters of the original text and was not particularly appreciated by Engels. It was a simplified text, aimed at supporting the training of socialist militants and that made it possible for them to have access, indirect, to the work of Marx. The other summaries and anthologies of Capital, which, with a purpose similar to that of Deville, circulated in Europe during this period or ignored in Portugal, as was the case with Carlo Cafiero, or were only occasionally mentioned, as was the case with Paul Lafargue and Karl Kautsky, in its French versions. OCLC list two copies, both in the US.
More info