DUSAULX (Jean). De la passion du jeu, depuis les temps anciens jusqu'à nos jours. A Paris, de l'imprimerie de Monsieur, 1779.

DUSAULX (Jean). Of the passion of the game, since the ancient times until our days. In Paris, from the printing house of Monsieur, 1779. Two volumes in-8, XXXVI-267 p. + [2] f., 335 p., contemporary marbled and glazed havana calf, smooth ornamented spine, red morocco title and gilt fillet at the edges, red edges, entirely interleaved, skilfully restored. An exceptional interleaved copy annotated in the hand of the author. Unique early edition of this famous critical treatise on the passion of gambling and its excesses, largely influenced by the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whom the author had the opportunity to approach and with whom he maintained an important correspondence. Jean Dusaulx (Chartres, 1728 - Paris, 1799), member of the Academy of Inscriptions, a time secretary of the Duke of Orleans, deputy of Paris to the Convention and then Member of the Institute, is a repentant gambler who analyzes here the unhealthy effects of the abuse of gambling on the whole of French society at the dawn of the Revolution. The Rousseauist character of Dusaulx's work was highlighted by the historian Michel Porret ("Aux lisières du Contrat social : le cercle des joueurs maudits, Jean Dusaulx et la passion du jeu à la fin du XVIIIe siècle", in Revue européenne des sciences sociales, 1991, T. 29, No. 90, pp. 43-66). This is an exceptional copy: it is the one in which the author recorded his notes and observations following the publication, in view of a new edition that never saw the light of day. Dusaulx made corrections in the text, but above all a great number of additions, in particular the addition of quotations and references aimed at justifying his remarks. He seems to have wanted to take into account the criticisms of which his book was the object, and to answer them while enriching his text; thus, one can read, on the first annotated sheet of the second volume: "One claimed that, in this second part, I was indeed going back on my steps [...] I, initially, followed the chronological order: but, then, I warned that I would not have any more regard to this order [...]". The table of contents itself, which consists of an index of the names quoted, has been considerably enriched because of the new quotations inserted in the text. Provenance: Jesuit house of Saint-Stanislas in Aix-en-Provence (20th c. label).