23 - DIDEROT (Denis). Letter on the Blind, for the Use of Those Who See. London [Paris], n.p., 1749. 220 pp., (1) unnumbered folio.

DIDEROT (Denis). Letter on the Blind, for the Use of Those Who See. London [Paris], n.p., 1749. 220 pp., (1) unnumbered folio. 6 copperplate engravings, correctly placed. First edition of this text, printed clandestinely in Paris by Simon for Durand, which earned Diderot several months of imprisonment at Vincennes due to the materialist theories he developed therein. Copy exhibiting the characteristics of the first printing: title medallion “in the shape of a scale,” p. 210 unnumbered and left blank, uncorrected errors in the table of contents—"leur Methaphysique" on p. 212 and "Existence continuée des êres" on p. 214 — as well as the “Note to the Bookbinder” on the front of the last unnumbered leaf. Bound with: MONTESQUIEU (Charles de Secondat de). Defense of the Spirit of the Laws, to which some clarifications have been appended. Geneva, Barrillot & Sons, 1750. 207 pp. First edition. Vigorously attacked upon its publication in 1748, *De l’Esprit des lois* drew numerous criticisms, to which Montesquieu himself responded in this *Défense*, published anonymously in 1750. In it, he refutes the accusations leveled against his work and clarifies his thinking, particularly on religious matters. *The Spirit of the Laws* was ultimately placed on the Index in 1751. Bound with: MONTESQUIEU (Charles de Secondat de). *The Temple of Gnide*. New edition. London, n.p., 1755. 108 pp. A collection of three major texts bound together in a 12mo volume, in full period calfskin, with a decorated ribbed spine.