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VOLTAIRE

Essay sur l'histoire générale, et sur les moeurs et l'esprit des Nations, depuis Charlemagne jusqu'à nos jours.

S.n. [Cramer], s.l. [Genève] 1756, In-8 (11,5x20cm), (6) 399pp. (1) et (4) 380pp. (1) et (4) 391pp. (1) et (4) 328pp. (1) et (4) 335pp. et (4) 308pp. et (4) 320pp., 7 volumes reliés.

Partly first edition. It is the last edition to bear the title Essay on general history (that of 1764 only corrected the faults reported in the errata) before the choice of the final title by Voltaire in the 1771 edition: Essay on manners and the spirit of the nations . The edition formed volumes XI to XVIII of the complete works, it was obviously published separately but was integrated into the corpus of the works of Voltaire edited by Cramer.
Bindings in full contemporary marbled sheepskin. Back with ornate nerves. 2 title labels and one in red morocco number for each volume. Small restorations of an amateur with the head caps of volumes I, II, II, V, VI, VII and VII and for two tail caps. Most blunt corners.
The book is much more than a history of the world since Charlemagne. We also know that all editions of the Second Empire until today have been removed from the ideas defended by Voltaire and contrary to the image of the author built by modernity. One of the central theses is the perversity of the Christian religion, and more particularly Catholic, whose teaching is manifestly wrong. The races according to Voltaire could not derive from a single source, they are too heterogeneous. The essay on manners indeed contains all the theses of a racism and an anti-Semitism which will flourish in the XXth century and Voltaire shows there not only mysogin but also anti-Semitic and xenophobic. However, this work is important for Voltaire who will not stop working for fifteen years, and if he shows himself in favor of an enlightened despotism, this choice is carefully considered. Voltaire's work is very important, because it shows the paradoxes of a man in love with justice (The Treaty on Tolerance ), a man of the Enlightenment, but himself agitated by the prejudices of his time. The first volume begins with a study of the Chinese, then the Arabs, with long chapters on Muhammad and Islam. "It is difficult to measure what history owes to the Essay on manners. The presence of V. in historiographical evolution is certain. His influence is more difficult to circumscribe; it varies according to generations and according to schools »(L. Trenard).

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