[French Revolution]. - Raspail, François-Vincent, French scientist and socialist politician (1794-1878). "Recueil en quinze volumes, de pièces appartenant à l'histoire de La révolution, de l'époque de 1787-1793" (manuscript series title).

Mostly Paris, but including Trévoux, Lyon, Grenoble, Dijon, etc., mostly 1787-1795 (but including a few earlier and later specimens).

A uniform set of 15 volumes comprising a total of more than 280 printed pamphlets from the period of the French Revolution. Privately bound in mottled half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped red spine labels (ca. 1840). Marbled endpapers.

 9,500.00

Uncommonly comprehensive collection of contemporary pamphlets, satires and literary works, often exceptionally rare, as well as printed resolutions of and responses by, petitions addressed to, and speeches given before the revolutionary Assemblée nationale, in support of or attacking the French Revolution. The collection was assembled and thematically arranged by the great French naturalist and politician François Vincent Raspail (1794-1878), whose signature is stamped to the first title-page of each volume and whose handwritten tables of contents are inserted after the front flyleaves. Raspail, a pioneer in the fields of cell theory, microscopy, and antiseptics, had been a member of the secret Carbonari society, was wounded on the barricades in 1830 and spent many years in prison for his republican beliefs. A candidate for the Presidency of the Second Republic in 1848, he lost to Napoleon III. Today, the longest boulevard in Paris, the "Boulevard Raspail", is named in his honour.

Among the pamphlets contained, some of great historical importance, others known in only a single or a handful of copies, and some otherwise unattested in this specific variant printing, are such works as: Lafayette, "Mémoire sur l'état des finances" (1787); Rabaut, "Considérations très-importantes sur les intérêts du Tiers État" (1788); Abbé Sièyes, "Qu'est ce-que le Tiers-État?" (1789); Desmoulins, "Discours sur la lanterne aux parisiens" (1789); Target, "Projet de déclaration des droits de l'homme" (1789); "Quand aurons-nous du pain" (1789); "Marie-Antoinette d'Autriche, reine de France, a la Nation" (1789); Mirabeau, "Discours sur l'exposition des principes de la constitution civile du Clergé" (1790); Hébert, "Petit carême de l'Abbé Maury" (1790); "Constitution française" (1791), "Defense de Louis XVI" (1792); "Adresse au peuple français" (1793); Aignan, "La mort de Louis Seize" (1793); etc.

Occasional slight edge defects; a few items incomplete. Bindings slightly bumped but still a very attractive ensemble compiled and systematically arranged by one of the figureheads of early French Republicanism. A complete list of the 289 works contained is available on application.

References

Catalogue des livres principalement sur les sciences et sur la Révolution francaise, composant la bibliothèque de feu M. F-V. Raspail dont la vente aura lieu le lundi 19 Janvier 1880... (Labitte, 1879), no. 1722 (this set: "jolie demi-reliure veau jaspé. Très-belle collection en parfait état").