1710 [c1742] Voyages et Avantures de Jacques Masse

Description

An Important Work, Early Edition, Illustrated

Rosenberg edition D, with vignette of nude woman to title page and frontispiece portrait of Jacques Masse. 

Despite title page stating the date at 1710, Rosenberg believes the work to have been published no later than 1742, with the first edition published sometime between 1714 and 1717.

Previous scholarship from Professor Storer argued this variant D was in fact the first edition, but this was later proven to be incorrect, with Rosenberg edition A with the celestial globe now widely considered to be the first. 

Duodecimo. Signatures run a2, *2, A-X12, Y2. *1 incorrectly signed as *2, with *2 unsigned, as called for. Collated complete. 

In contemporary calf. 

An early example of the Utopian novel, Voyages et Avantures de Jacques Masse tells the story of a man who upon being shipwrecked discovers paradise. The protagonist learns the local language in order to preach Christianity, but the locals dismiss the teachings, with particular distain towards what they considered to be an unjust God. The work was extremely controversial upon publication, and was quickly banned, notably due to its critique of Catholicism.