RUMFORD (Benjamin Thomson, Earl of). Essais politiques, écon - Lot 157

RUMFORD (Benjamin Thomson, Earl of). Essais politiques, économiques et philosophiques. Genève, Manget, An VII, 1799. 2 volumes in-8, green half calf, spine decorated, marbled edges (Binding circa 1840). Coquelin et Guillaumin, t. II, p. 562. - Vicaire, col. 760. - Livres en bouche, no. 165. First edition of the French translation, with 8 folding plates. Rumford (1753-1814), American physicist and philanthropist, is best known for his economical soup and stoves, to which he devotes several chapters in his Essays. It was in Bavaria, where for a time he was Grand Chamberlain, that the author perfected an economical method of making soups to relieve the misery of soldiers and the poor: I have found that the cheapest, pleasantest & most substantial food that can be provided for the poor, is a kind of soup composed of pearl barley, peas, potatoes, small slices of white bread, vinegar, salt & water in certain proportions (p. 206). The Essays can be read as an attempt to link technical considerations, related to the consumption of wood or foodstuffs, with moral and political considerations about maintaining social order and integration into civil society. Rumford explained how he had applied this method to integrate two groups excluded from civil society: soldiers and the poor. In both cases, reform began with consumption, inseparable from production (Vincent, "Une contre-révolution du consommateur? Count Rumford in Boston, Munich, London and Paris", in Histoire, économie & société, 2013/3, pp. 13-32). Small marginal wetness to the last 3 quires of volume I, some foxing. Minimal rubbing to binding, small detachment of skin with halo at spine of one volume.