520 - [RESTIF de LA BRETONNE (Nicolas)]. *Les Gynographes, or Thoughts of Two Honest Women on a Proposed Regulation for All of Europe, to Put Women in Their Place and Bring Happiness to Both Sexes* [...] La Haie, Gosse & Pinet, and available in Paris from Humblot, 1777. 2 parts in one vol., in-8, [1] f. (half-title “Idées singulières / tome troisième”), VIII pp., including the title page, 567–[1] pp. Havana calfskin, decorated ribbed spine, brown title label, green volume number “III” label (contemporary binding). Upper cap torn off, jaws and corners worn.

[RESTIF de LA BRETONNE (Nicolas)]. *Les Gynographes, or Thoughts of Two Honest Women on a Proposed Regulation for All of Europe, to Put Women in Their Place and Bring Happiness to Both Sexes* [...] La Haie, Gosse & Pinet, and available in Paris from Humblot, 1777. 2 parts in one vol., in-8, [1] f. (half-title “Idées singulières / tome troisième”), VIII pp., including the title page, 567–[1] pp. Havana calfskin, decorated ribbed spine, brown title label, green volume number “III” label (contemporary binding). Upper cap torn off, jaws and corners worn. First edition (with an interim title), constituting the third volume of the *Idées singulières* series, following *Le Pornographe* (1769) and *La Mimographe* (1770). According to Paul Lacroix, the first copies are said to have appeared as early as 1776, bearing only the address of the Parisian bookseller Humblot. To comply with police requirements—which mandated a foreign address for works lacking approval and a privilege—this title was replaced by one bearing the address of The Hague, Gosse and Pinet, and the date 1777. Rives-Childs, however, dates the work’s first publication to the beginning of that year. Through the voices of two female correspondents, Rétif envisions a radical reform of women’s status and the organization of gender relations. He proposes a comprehensive system of social regulation, addressing in particular the education of girls, marriage, marital fidelity, family duties, and the place of women in society. This project, which claims to ensure the happiness of both sexes, reveals the contradictions in Rétif’s thinking, between his desire for reform and his deeply authoritarian conception of social order. The work concludes with historical profiles of famous women. (Rives-Childs, p. 245; Lacroix, p. 143.) A few foxing spots.