Repertoire d’autorités graves en faveur de l’athèisme.
[Paris], P.-S. Maréchal [1793-1800].
Long 12mo (150 x 90 mm.). [ii], [156]p. In a single cursive hand.
Blind-ruled diced red morocco (White of Pall Mall, 1850; hinges scuffed), all edges gilt, red silk marker.
UNRECORDED AUTOGRAPH DRAFT OF A BANNED BOOK THAT WAS PUBLICLY BURNED. Collected over some three decades, the Dictionnaire des athées (1800) is an imposing repertoire of quotes on atheism, materialism and freedom of conscience. Maréchal includes ancient and modern proverbs, the spiritual traditions of Asia, Africa and the Americas and the work of contemporary scientists, theologians and literati from Naudé and Spinoza to Newton and Luther. Book titles and editions appear in the margins.
MUCH OF THE MATERIAL COLLECTED HERE DID NOT APPEAR IN THE PRINTED DICTIONNAIRE, or did so significantly abridged. Among the rejected passages are poems by medieval Arabic deist Abū al-Alā al-Ma’arrī, long quotes by popes Julius III and Leo X and hundreds of Maréchal’s own remarks. A controversial intellectual, Maréchal also wrote satirical verse, irreverent plays and incendiary revolutionary pamphlets prefiguring the 19th-century communist and anarchist movements. In excellent condition, a leaf of manuscript added at the front in a later hand. My thanks to Dr. Erica Joy Mannucci for her invaluable assistance.
¶Fusil, Sylvain Maréchal ou l’homme san Dieu passim; Dommanget, Sylvain Maréchal l’égalitaire 447-55; Mannucci, Finalmente il popolo pensa. Sylvain Maréchal 13-9; Peignot, Dictionnaire…des principaux livres condamnés au feu I: xxv & 286-9.
Price: $16,500.00