HOLBACH (Paul Thiry Dietrich baron d') - La morale... Lot 333

HOLBACH (Paul Thiry Dietrich baron d') - La morale universelle ou les devoirs de l'homme fondés sur sa nature. Amsterdam, Chez Marc-Michel Rey, 1776; in-8, XXIV-286 + 250 + 283 pp. bound in contemporary full marbled calf, decorated smooth spines, painted edges, fillets on covers. All 3 volumes. First edition of this text, errata missing from volume II. Very good condition. Paul Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (German: Paul Heinrich Dietrich von Holbach), born in Edesheim in 1723 and died in Paris in 1789, was a German-born, French-speaking scholar, encyclopedist and materialist philosopher. He held open-table dinners every Thursday and Sunday for his friends, who included Buffon, d'Alembert, J.-J. Rousseau, Helvétius, Mercier, Naigeon (his publisher), Marmontel, La Harpe, Marie-Thérèse Geoffrin, Louise d'Épinay, Sophie d'Houdetot and foreigners such as Melchior Grimm, Adam Smith, David Hume, Laurence Sterne, Ferdinando Galiani, Cesare Beccaria, Joseph Priestley, Horace Walpole, Edward Gibbon, David Garrick (mostly cited in the brief biography of the second editor of the System of Nature, published in 1820). During receptions, articles for the Encyclopédie are prepared and written. Consultant : Mr. Philippe HENRY