Description
[LITERATURE]
MIRABEAU (Victor RIQUETTI, Marquis de)
L'Ami des Hommes, or A Treatise on Population. New edition, expanded to include a fourth part and summaries.
No place, no publisher, 1759.
7 volumes, in-12°. Full light brown sheepskin binding, marbled. Ribbed spine, decorated with gilt metalwork and fleurons.
Volumes I to III: L'Ami des Hommes, or A Treatise on Population.
- Volume I: Frontispiece, X, 5 unnumbered pages, 391 pages. Small marginal tear, no pages missing, on page 179.
- Volume II: 7 unnumbered pages, 534 pages. A small tear at the margin, no pages missing, on page 49.
- Volume III: 7 unnumbered pages, 526 pages.
Volume IV: Summary of the Organisation; or Treatise on the Provincial Estates. XI pp., 267 pages.
Volume V: Reply to the Objections against the Treatise on the Provincial Estates. Interesting Questions on Population, Agriculture and Trade. 376 pages.
Volume VI: Treatise on Agriculture. XII, 4 unnumbered pages, 298 pages and 1 unnumbered page.
Volume VII: Reply to the Essay on Bridges and Roads, Public Works and Compulsory Labour. Economic table with explanations (six folded tables). 228 pp., 1 unnumbered page, followed by 228 pages and 4 pp. Page 180 torn, but no pages missing.
*L’Ami des hommes*, a collection of essays foreshadowing the Physiocrats; Mirabeau has gathered together ‘scattered and neglected pieces that had flowed from his pen’. The fundamental thesis of *L’Ami des hommes* is that the population is the source of all wealth; the author sets out to demonstrate the benefits of a large and prosperous population. But the work also contains a eulogy to agriculture, the art par excellence, and a theory of free trade. It also contains proposals for social reform: the Marquis de Mirabeau was an advocate of compulsory labour for all. A tone that was at once prophetic and familiar ensured the book’s success, as the author managed to articulate, at just the right moment, what everyone was thinking to a greater or lesser extent.
In fine condition.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale
Bibliophilia – A fine selection of antique and modern books
Auction location
Auction time
10/15/2026 at 1:00 PM
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