Aspects of Enlightenment Bernard Quaritch Bernard Quaritch Ltd 36 BEDFORD ROW, LONDON, WC1R 4JH Tel.: +44 (0)20 7297 4888 Fax: +44 (0)20 7297 4866 email:
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[email protected] Web: www.quaritch.com Bankers: Barclays Bank PLC 1 Churchill Place London E14 5HP Sort code: 20-65-90 Swift code: BUKBGB22 Sterling account: IBAN GB71 BUKB 2065 9010 5117 22 Euro account: IBAN GB03 BUKB 2065 9045 4470 11 U.S. Dollar account: IBAN GB19 BUKB 2065 9063 9924 44 VAT number: GB 322 4543 31 37 - Pic List 2020/4 Cover image from no. 13 - Eckhartshausen EDUCATING GIRLS AND BOYS TO BE CITIZENS, NOT SLAVES 1 - [ANON]. Lettere Cisalpine a Sofia tradotte dall‘originale francese inedito. Volume primo [- secondo]. Milan, Pirotta e Maspero, Anno VI [1797]. Two volumes bound in one, 8vo, pp. [iv], 174, [1] errata, [1] blank; 208; old paper repair to upper gutter of first few leaves (possibly due to rodent damage), some spotting and staining, largely to head, but body of text largely clean; in contemporary sheep-backed patterned boards; spine ruled in gilt; binding somewhat loose, spine and extremities worn; despite faults, an attractive copy. £850 Only edition, not, despite the title, a translation from any identifiable French work, of this substantial work on the education of children in the context of the new republican Europe, heavily inspired by the work of Rousseau. After a brief introduction, in which the anonymous author extols the virtues of the republican constitution of 1795 (see item #18) as bringing an end both to noble decadence and civil discord, and notes that the reader will detect ‘mille idee di Rousseau, di Montesquieu, di Locke, di Smith, e di molti altri Filosofi’, the work is divided into thirteen letters, in which he sets out what an education would look like, both for girls and boys, that would prepare citizens for a properly engaged public life.