MIRABEAU (Victor de Riquetti, Marquis de). The... Lot 350

[MIRABEAU (Victor de Riquetti, Marquis de). The Friend of Men, or Treatise on Population. First [- Fifth] part. Avignon, s.n., 1756-1758-1760. 5 parts in 2 volumes in-4, speckled calf, triple cold fillet, ornamented spine, red title and brown tomaison, red edges (Binding of the time). INED, n°3194. - Spengler, pp. 129-135. - Weulersse, t. I, pp. 53-55. Extremely rare first edition. Famous work of Mirabeau, which met with a real triumph at its publication. The author clearly advocates the necessity of a demographic increase, source of all wealth, and considers that agriculture, the first, the most useful, the most innocent & the most precious of the arts (IIIe partie, p. 216), as the foundation of population, must be stimulated: never before had agriculture aroused such an eloquent "apology" as Weulersse wrote. In the famous Ami des Hommes, published about a year before he joined the physiocratic school, we find many of the notions developed by Cantillon. [...] in spite of the liberties taken with the orthodoxy of the physiocratic theory, Mirabeau's Ami des Hommes was, more than any other, responsible for the interest in population questions in the third quarter of the 18th century: one finds in it already many of the key ideas expressed in his later physiocratic writings (Spengler). A complete copy of the five parts. The fifth part contains the following texts: Mémoire sur l'agriculture envoyé à la très-louable société d'agriculture de Berne, Extrait des six premiers livres du Corps complet d'Oeconomie rustique de Thomas Hale, and especially the famous Tableau oeconomique with its explanations by Quesnay. Engraved armorial bookplate of Jean-Baptiste Peyer imHoff, seigneur de Fontenelle. A frontispiece, found in some copies, is not present here. Lower stain on volume II. Smudging on the boards of volume II, a restored spine and cap in volume I.