9 - [America] [PAUW (Corneille de)]. Philosophical Researches on the Americans, or Interesting Memoirs to Serve the History of the Human Race. With a Dissertation on America and the Americans by Dom Pernetty. London, n.p., 1774. 3 in-12 volumes, contemporary marbled sheepskin, decorated ribbed spine. Scuffs and wear; tear at the lower corner of p. 405 of vol. I, without damage to the text.

[America] [PAUW (Corneille de)]. Philosophical Researches on the Americans, or Interesting Memoirs to Serve the History of the Human Race. With a Dissertation on America and the Americans by Dom Pernetty. London, n.p., 1774. 3 in-12 volumes, contemporary marbled sheepskin, decorated ribbed spine. Scuffs and wear; tear at the lower corner of p. 405 of vol. I, without damage to the text. An expanded edition, bringing together in three volumes Corneille de Pauw’s research and the texts of the controversy it sparked. The original edition was published in Berlin in 1768–1769. The work sparked a fierce controversy. Pauw (1739–1799) asserted that anthropological and climatic factors on the American continent would contribute to the racial degeneration of the American colonies and predicted that Europeans would be unable to adapt there. This work sparked considerable controversy. The Benedictine monk Dom Pernety responded with his *Dissertation on America and the Americans*, defending the reputation of the American Indians. Pauw replied to Dom Pernety with a *Defense of Philosophical Research*. Both texts are printed in Volume 3.