Small octavo. Pp. iv, 356. Half-title present. Hardcover, bound in contemporary tree full calf, gilt crimson morocco lettering-piece to spine, gilt fleurons, gilt ruled edges, marbled endpapers, cloth ribbon marker; minor sporadic spotting, corner-tips trifle rubbed. An excellent copy. ~ First separate edition. SIGNED by the Publisher Lévi on verso of half-title. Originally published in 1804 as part of "Eléments d'idéologie", the work was titled "Traité de la volonté". (Palgrave 1894-1901). Antoine Louis Claude, Comte Destutt de Tracy (1754-1836), French senator, philosopher, and economist. An important intellectual leader during the time of Napoleon, he had been a member of the States-General (1789) and the Senate. Besides philosophical works influenced by Condillac, he wrote "Traité d'économie politique", his only major work on economics. Production meant for him a change in form or place. Value, he said, must be expressed in units of value, but he himself did not recommend a specific unit of measurement. (Mai, p. 70). Thomas Jefferson made the American people acquainted with Destutt de Tracy's work through his translation of the unpublished French original. Revised and corrected by himself, it was published as "A Treatise on Political Economy" (Georgetown, Joseph Milligan, 1817). Goldsmith 23731. Kress C.1051. Einaudi 1547. A most attractive copy.
