Observations sur le sentiment du beau et du sublime [avec] Recherche philosophique sur l'origine de nos idées du sublime et du beau

A unique combination of French translations of the first two philosophical works on the Sublime, marking the beginning of the most important reflection on aesthetics in Western history.
Extremely rare first edition of the first French translation of a philosophical work by Immanuel Kant, and the second ever translation of a Kantian text. The others were only translated during the 19th century. Illustrated with a portrait of the author by Benezy. The first edition in German was published in 1764 in Königsberg under the title "Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen".
Contemporary half brown roan binding with vellum corners, smooth spine ruled in gilt, blue paper boards, white paper pastedowns and endpapers, yellow red-speckled edges. Some marks on the endpapers, scattered foxing more noticeable on a few leaves.
This essay contains Kant's first observations on aesthetics - he had previously only published scientific texts - and more specifically on the sublime, a concept that would come into its own in Critique of Judgment (1790) left untranslated until the 19th century as it is the case with almost all of Kant's oeuvre.
"Certainly even before 1781 Kant's name was not completely unknown at the University of Strasbourg, where some students and professors had cited him in their research or lectures. The works of the Berlin Academy which included memoirs by staunch opponents of Kantianism were not completely ignored in France. However, it was not until the French Revolution and even the end of the Convention and the beginning of the Directoire, i.e. almost fifteen years after the publication of the Critique of Pure Reason that people in France began to talk about Kant and his work" (Jean Ferrari, "L'œuvre de Kant en France dans les dernières années du XVIIIè siècle" Les Études philosophiques No. 4, Kant (oct-dec 1981), pp. 399-411).
Bound at rear: Second French translation of Burke's text by E. Lagentie de Lavaïsse considered superior to the first 1765 translation by Abbé Des François. Illustrated with a portrait of the author by Mariage. The very first work on aesthetics, published in 1757 and translated into English the same year under the title A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.
Burke regarded the sublime as that which has the power to compel and destroy us (a "delightful terror"). As an ardent admirer of his philosophy, Kant went beyond this consideration in Critique of Judgment (1790), concluding that the sublime is "that which is absolutely great", something in the face of which man feels inferior and feels respect.
The first two modern definitions of the sublime - one as realization of human reason, the other as reason's confrontation with that which surpasses it - aptly bound together by a scholar aware of the philosophical debates of his time.