ESQUISSE D’UN TABLEAU HISTORIQUE

8vo, pp. viii, 389, [1] blank; occasional spotting and marking, but never heavy; the odd tear to foot with slight paper loss, but never affecting text; final leaf stuck to wrapper, but verso blank so with no loss of text; uncut in interim wrappers; wrappers worn but sound, spine chipped at head and foot, with light dampstain to head and old manuscript paper label.

First Milan printing, uncommon, of Condorcet's monumental survey of the history of human endeavour, first published posthumously in 1795.

An 'ouvrage d'un utilité générale et durable', the Esquisse represents a summation of Concordet's thoughts on the notion of human progress, and thus can in some ways be seen as a definitive encapsulation of the enlightenment project, or at least of one view of it. Condorcet divides his work into ten époques, tracing human history from the initial formation of societies, through the development of agriculture, the invention of writing, the intellectual and scientific achievements of classical Greece, the progress (not uninterrupted) of the sciences, the invention of printing, and the tense relationship between scientific progress and 'the yoke of authority'. Closing with two chapters on the period from Descartes until the French Revolution and on his expectations for future human progress, Condorcet demonstrates his optimism: 'Our hopes for the future state of the human species can be reduced to these three important points: the destruction of inequality between nations; the progress of equality within nations; and finally, the real perfection of humanity. Are not all nations bound one day to approach the state of civilisation reached by the most enlightened, freest, least prejudiced of peoples, such as the French and the Anglo-Americans?' (p.328)

Concorcet's work was instantly popular, with 1795 printings in Paris and Zürich; it was swiftly translated into English (printed in both London and Philadephia) and German (Tübingen), before Zatta in Venice published an Italian translation by Luigi Bossi in 1797. The present edition is the first to be printed in French in Italy.

Outside Continental Europe, OCLC records copies at Connecticut, the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, and Durham.