![[From the Library of Adam Smith] - Helvétius](https://media.app.artisio.co/media/104cbde6-0d38-43cb-9e0f-bb721ef57bcf/inventory/94c1197d-b59a-46e9-8029-7031f5253d2b/b0227e39-a4fa-48fd-b232-189aa9f463b1/0001_FqBOMo_original.jpg)
[From the Library of Adam Smith] - Helvétius
De l'Homme, de ses Facultés Intellectuelles et de son Éducation
£13,860
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 September 2023 at 10:00 BST
Description
London [i.e. The Hague]: La Société Typographique, 1773. 2 volumes, 8vo, contemporary calf, a little rubbing, bookplates of Adam Smith [ESTC T232309]
Footnote
Note: A complete set from the library of Adam Smith, written by not just a noted intellectual, but a colleague and host during the economist’s travels in France. While tutor to Henry Scott, Duke of Buccleuch, on his Grand Tour from 1764 to 1766, Adam Smith became a hit in the Paris salons. Still a decade out from the publication of The Wealth of Nations, the economist found himself steeped in the intellectual culture France had to offer in a way that would influence his work for the rest of his life. Economists and philosophers blurred into one in these rooms, with discussions of commerce, banking, and agriculture.
One such acquaintance Smith made while in France was that of Claude Adrien Helvétius. The philosopher was still recovering from the backlash he had received for his highly controversial, yet to this day very influential, De l'esprit (1758). It was a revolutionary work, but one that resulted in Helvétius himself publishing several retractions before the book was publicly burned by the Paris hangman. His works would later inspire the likes of John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx.
Having retired from his career as a farmer-general for the crown, Helvétius had settled into a country estate, but held an apartment in Paris so he was never too far from the intellectual milieu that inspired so many in the 18th century. Hume first suggested Smith read Helvétius in a letter in 1659, but Smith took advantage of his time in France to meet the man himself. Helvétius even hosted Smith while the burgeoning economist was on the Grand Tour. He clearly left his mark on Smith, who collected his print works even after the French philosopher’s death in 1771. De l’homme was found in Helvétius’s papers after his death and published posthumously in 1773. These two volumes are bound in a style common for Smith’s library and proudly wear his bookplate on their respective front pastedowns.