RAYNAL (Guillaume-Thomas). HISTOIRE PHILOSOPHIQUE ET POLITIQUE, DES ÉTABLISSEMENS DU COMMERCE DES EUROPÉENS DANS LES DEUX INDES. Geneva, Libraires Associés, 1775. Three volumes in-4 frosted blond calf, triple gilt fillet on covers, five ribbed spines, red and green titles and gilt edges (contemporary binding). 2 scuff marks and tiny leather loss at the foot of the upper spine in volume 3. INCREASED SECOND EDITION and FIRST IN-QUARTO EDITION of ONE OF THE KEY WORKS of the crisis of the Ancien Régime. This edition is still published anonymously. It is illustrated with a PORTRAIT of the author drawn by Cochin and engraved by Le Grand, 6/7 engraved FIGURES h.-t. [LACKING one figure in volume 3], 3 HEAD VIGNETTES and 4 fold-out MAPS (Gulf of Mexico, South America, North America, Indian Ocean and South Sea with the Philippines and New Holland). Abbé Raynal's "Histoire des deux Indes", a work in which DIDEROT played a major role alongside Holbach, Naigeon and many other philosophical and scientific figures, was blacklisted when it was first published in 1770. This work is both a history of European exploration and trade around the world and a sometimes violent denunciation of slavery and the exploitation of the colonies by the metropolises. Borrowings from administrative memoirs and earlier treatises alternate with pieces of revolutionary eloquence, often from the pen of Diderot. Also attacking religious institutions, monarchical despotism and intolerance, the "Histoire des deux Indes" is a REAL PHILOSOPHICAL BURLOT. A BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE in contemporary blond calf, very fresh. Michel Delon, "En français dans le texte", 166. - Sabin, 68080.