VOLTAIRE]. Candide, or Optimism, translated from the German - Lot 88

VOLTAIRE]. Candide, or Optimism, translated from the German by Mr. Doctor Ralph. Without place, 1759; in-12 (186 mm) of 299 p. and [2] ff. the first blank, the second for a "Notice to the binder" (printed perpendicularly), paperback, entirely untrimmed, original decorated paper cover, red chagrin slipcase. First edition, printed in Geneva by the Cramers to whom Voltaire had given his manuscript. The precedence of this edition over the The anteriority of this edition over the sixteen others published the same year has been decisively established by the successive works of Bernard Gagnebin, who showed, based on the Grand livre des frères Cramer, that Candide had appeared in Geneva on January 15, 1759 (Bulletin du Bibliophile, 1952, p. 169-181); of André Morize (Édition critique de Candide. Paris, Didier, 1957, no. 59-a); and of the editors of the Voltaire catalogue of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1978, t. II, no. 2611. ONE OF THE FEW KNOWN BROCHURES CONTAINING, IN ADDITION, THE RARE NOTICE TO THE BOOKBINDER (which indicates the inserts to replace pages 31-32, 41-42, 83-84, 85-86 modified). A FINE COPY. Bengesco, 1434. - Morize, 59-a. - Catalogue Voltaire BNF, 1978, t. II, n° 2611.