East India. RAYNAL. Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens et du commerce des européens dans les Deux Indes.

RAYNAL, Guillaume-Thomas. Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens et du commerce des européens dans les Deux Indes... Tome Premier [-Dixième] Genève, [Jean Abraham Nouffer & Jean Pierre Bonnant], 1781 10 voll Small 8vo, 185x110 mm, binding in boards. Each volume with copper-engraved Frontispiece, to the first volume there is the Portrait of Raynal engraved by F.G. Lardy. In total, 10 Frontispece, a map, with the Planisphere, 23 plates. Sign of wear, some spots, overall a good copy. Rare counterfeit of the final edition. Considered as the eighteenth-century encyclopedia of anti-colonism, the work had a dazzling success throughout Europe and America: immediately put on the index, sentenced to be suppressed in 1779, it was sentenced to fire in 1781. L'Histoire Philosophique it is at the same time a history of exploration and commercial enterprises around the world and a violent denunciation of slavery and the exploitation of colonies by European countries. Abbot Raynal made use of the collaboration of Diderot, Pechmeja and d'Holbach; book 19, in volume 10 is Alexandre Deleyre's 'Tableau de l'Europe'.