14972 — Londres (Amsterdam, M.M. Rey), 1773. 3 volumes in 1. viii, 218, (2) pp.; (4), 174, (2) pp.; (4), 166, (2) pp. 8vo. Contemporary calf, spine richly gilt with leather labels and gilt lettering, gilt triple line fillet on sides, lightly worn. Vercruysse 1773-A4; Naville 419; Thomas, Checklist, 78; Kress S.4739; Goldsmiths 10952; Einaudi 2911; Higgs 5873; R. Darnton, The Corpus of Clandestine Literature in France, 1769-1789, 662. First edition. Paul-Henri Dietrich Thiery d'Holbach (1723-1789), the formemost exponent of atheistic materialism and the most intransigent polemicist against religion in the Enlightenment. On settling in Paris, Holbach had associated with the younger philosophes who, with Diderot, d'Alembert and Rousseau, were grouping around the Encyclopédie, to which he also became a major contributor. His Salon soon became the main social center, and a sort of intellectual headquarters, for the Encyclopedist movement. Among those attending were Diderot, Grimm, Helvétius, d'Alembert, Rousseau, Boulanger, Condillac, Naigeon, Turgot, and Condorcet. The Baron also counted among his acquaintances many foreigners, notably Hume, Gibbon, Smith, Priestley, Walpole, Garrick, Sterne, Beccaria and Franklin. It is little surprizing that Holbach was also known as le premier maître d'hôtel de la philosophie. Almost everything he wrote -whether because it expounded atheism and materialism, attacked Christianity, or castigated absolute monarchy, the state church, and feudal privilege- was highly subversive under the Ancien régime and could have exposed him to the severest penalties. Consequently, his innumerable manuscripts were usually forwarded through secret channels to Holland for publication, after which the books were smuggled back into France.
