Sold by Athena Rare Books ABAA, Fairfield, CT, U.S.A.
Association Member:
AbeBooks Seller since 24 January 2003
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
TP + [i]-[iv] = Avertissement + [vi]-[xviii] = Dedicace + [1]-109, 12mo. Sometimes referred to as the "X" issue of the First Edition but, more accurately, the Second Edition, (Stoddard 31).[bound with]L'Homme-Plante (Man, the Plant). Chez Chretien Frederie Voss. [nd: 1748]. TP + [3] = Préface + [5]-58. First Edition. Issue A (Stoddard 34).L'Homme MachineThe rare second edition of La Mettrie's L'Homme Machine - the first edition (numbering 108 pages and sometimes referred to as the "W" issue) having been destroyed on orders of the Consistoire of Leyden in December of 1747 with almost no copies surviving. Tchemerzine (VI, p. 465) reports only 6 to 8 extant copies of this edition - but incorrectly claims a TP date of 1747. Tchemerzine then lists a 148 page edition as being the next edition issued after this rare first edition but this has since been proved to be a later piracy and is sometimes referred to as the "Y" issue. Roger Stoddard, in his recent bibliography on La Mettrie, lists the rare 108 page version (#30) as the true first edition. He differentiates between two 109 page versions (#31 & #32) by noting that the first has a 6 line quote from Voltaire on the TP while the second has a 7 line quote. Although both of these books have title pages listing 1748 (MDCCXLVIII) as the publication date, Stoddard notes that the first (#31) was published in "1752 or before" and the second (#32) in 1764. This copy has the 6-line quote from Voltaire identifying it as Stoddard's #31. This book marks the starting point of modern materialism and was the most forceful expression of the anti-religious sentiment of the Enlightenment. In La Mettrie's "human machine' there was no essential difference between conscious and unconscious behavior, no freedom of the will, no rational soul and no moral good beyond the perfectibility of the mechanism. In its final consequence, this doctrine of physiological determinism leaves no freedom to the individual and all human actions are intrinsically amoral. L'Homme-PlanteThe scarce first edition of La Mettrie's L'Homme-Plante. This copy has all of the issue points called for by Stoddard (p. [5], l. 3 = "enco-"; 19-20 numbered in the gutters; p. 48 misprinted as 84) for the A edition. (He identifies the B as "probably a counterfeit.")Having described man as a soul-less machine in the previous book, La Mettrie followed this with a detailed description of the workings of the human body based on a comparison with plants, in an attempt to show the uniformity of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Moving on to the differences between the two, La Mettrie demonstrates that - similar to the case with human beings and other animals - there is no need for a soul to explain the functioning of plants. Contemporary worn pasteboards with ¾ leather. The spine has four raised bands with gilt lettering on a red field the second compartment. An absolutely lovely copy of two rare little books. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Seller Inventory # 1001
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