Du contrat social, ou principes du droit politique [Ensemble] Jean-Jacques Rousseau à Christophe de Beaumont

Rare pirated edition by Jean-Baptiste Reguillat in Lyon. The second text is the response addressed by Rousseau to the archbishop of Paris for his attack on Emile; this edition is a counterfeit of the original, probably Parisian, and would have been orchestrated by Rousseau himself.
Contemporary full speckled sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons. Beige morocco title label. A fragment missing at head, and at joints at head. Upper joint cracked at tail. Relatively fresh overall.
"The Réguilliat edition was one of the important milestones in the editorial history of this great text" writes Dominique Varry, book historian, in Histoire et civilisation du livre, "Un Lyonnais pris en flagrant délit d'impression du Contrat social". In this study, the historian recounts: On the date of September 23, 1762, Bachaumont's Mémoires secrets announced that "A certain Deville, bookseller of Lyon, has just been arrested and taken to Pierre-Encyse. An edition he was making of this book was found at his premises. The information is both accurate and false. A printer-bookseller was indeed arrested in flagrante delicto printing the Contrat social on the previous August 18, but there was an error regarding the person. It was not one of the three Deville brothers, who had gone bankrupt in 1748, but Jean-Baptiste Réguillat.