Revolutions > French Revolution
Constitution de la Republique français
Paris: Chez J. De Boffe et J. Debrett 1795
Columbia RBML B342 .441 F8471
This 1795 copy of the Constitution de la Republique française contains two interesting handwritten lists on the first pages. On the verso for the half title page somebody has written in English a list of the six works bound together into this one volume, detailing the price of each, as well as the cost of binding them together. On the page facing the first page of text the same hand has enumerated the constitutions, beginning with the creation of the revolutionary National Assembly in 1789, and ending with the Constitution of 1804 by which Bonaparte is made “hereditary and despotic Emperor of France.” While the city of publication listed is Paris, this book was actually published in London.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contract social
Amsterdam: Chez Marc Michel Rey 1762
Columbia University RBML Seligman 1762Ho R76
Jean-Jacques Rousseau published Du contract social in 1762 in France, the date on the title page of this book. However, this copy of Du contract social is a counterfeit of the first edition, printed in Amsterdam. Condemned by both the Church (Catholic and Protestant) and the French Parliament, Du contract social was burned throughout France and Geneva and a warrant was issued for its author’s arrest. After its publication, Rousseau fled to Neuchatel and spent the remainder of his life concerned about his safety. His works also demanded safe haven. His supporters circulated his books in editions with false cover pages. See also the false imprint of Machiavelli included in this exhibition.
The title page describes Rousseau as a “citizen of Geneva” as Rousseau proudly described himself throughout his life. Nonetheless, after his death France claimed him as one of their own, burying him in the Pantheon in Paris in 1794. Rousseau was a hero to the Jacobin revolutionaries who cited from Du contract social and ran with his ideas about direct democracy. However, Rousseau made enemies even after his death; he was a primary target of Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).