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VOLNEY,C.F.
Les ruines, ou méditation sur les révolutions des empires. 12e édition. On y a joint La loi naturelle.
Paris, Bossange Frères, Libraires, 1822.
Reference : 120374
XXV,(1 blank),383,(1 blank) p., engraved portrait, engraved frontispiece, 1 engraved plate, and 2 folding tables, showing a map of Europe, Africa & Asia, and a celestial map with the signs of the zodiac. Half calf 13.5 cm (Condition: Boards and corners somewhat scuffed. Some slight foxing) (Note: The French historian, philosopher and orientalist Constantin François de Chassebuf de Volney, 1757-1820, is one of the founding fathers of the Black Athena theory. After a trip to the Middle East in 1782 he suggested that the ancient Egyptians were originally black Africans, and that the Egyptians of his time were mulats with mixed blood. 'Les anciens Égyptiens étaient de vrais Nègres de l'espèce de tous les naturels d'Afrique; et dès-lors, on explique comment leur sang, allié depuis plusieurs siècles à celui des Romains et des Grecs, a dû perdre l'intensité de sa première couleur, en conservant cependant l'empreinte de son moule originel (...); de penser que cette race d'hommes noirs, aujourd'hui notre esclave et l'objet de nos mépris, est celle-là même à qui nous devons nos arts, nos sciences, et jusqu'à l'usage de la parole'. (Voyage en Syrie et en Égypte, pendant les années 1783, 1784 & 1785, Paris 1785, p. 75/6) In 1791 Volney published his 'Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires', an essay on the philosophy of history. 'L'auteur se met en scène sur les ruines de Palmyre; et là il se livre à de profondes méditations sur la destruction de tant d'empires à qui leur puissance colossale semblait promettre une éternelle durée, et qui n'en ont pas moins obéi à cette loi de la nature qui veut que tout périsse. Dans ce même ouvrage, Volney établit la nécessité de la tolérance religieuse, reconnue aujourd'hui par tous les esprits éclairés. (...) Les Ruines n'en passent pas moins pour une des productions les plus remarquables de la littérature de la fin du XVIIIe siècle'. (Wikipédia s.v. Volney) Some of the central ideas in Les Ruines stirred the imagination of its readers. It predicted the final union of all religions by the recognition of the common truth underlying them all, and stated that empires rise if government allows enlightened self-interest to flourish) (Photographs on request)
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