[COYER, Gabriel François, Abbé.]
Chinki, histoire cochinchinoise qui peut servir à d'autres pays.
"Londres," 1768.
8vo (215 × 132 mm.), pp. 96. Title with typographical ornament, other ornaments elsewhere. Some spotting and light browning, mostly marginal. Uncut in contemporary marbled wrappers, slightly frayed, expert repair to spine. A good, uncut copy.
First edition, presumed first issue. Appearing in the same year as Voltaire's l'Homme aux 40 écus, Chinki was often attributed to Voltaire. Another issue of the same year contains a subtitle claiming the work as a sequel to Voltaire. The plight of the peasant Chinki at the hands of his Cochinchinese masters is a thinly veiled critique of the economic policies of the French state before Turgot. Several other issues appeared in the same year with the false London imprint: they were probably all printed inside France.
Cioranescu 21591; Dufrenoy 201 (giving our issue primacy over the issue referring to l'Homme aux 40 écus); Higgs 4327 (our issue); cf. Goldsmiths' 10389 (issue with the same title but 100 pages)
£400.00
US$794.32*
* Given as a guide only. Based on an exchange rate of £1 = US$1.985799 for the day 25 July 2008 but liable to fluctuate.
25 July 2008