SMITH, Adam. Jean-Antoine ROUCHER, translator. ~ Recherches sur la nature et les causes de la richesse des nations... deuxième édition, revue et considérablement corrigée. Paris: Buisson... An 3e [ 1795].
5 vols, 8vo (195 × 110 mm), pp. [6], vi, 438; [4], 494; [4], 624, [4], 411, [1]; [4], 370 (one leaf of index in final vol, pp. 211-2 bound out of order), complete with half-titles, the first with printed facsimile of Buisson’s signature. Very occasional paper flaws, with very minor losses of a few letters here and there. Contemporary quarter sprinkled sheep, spines gilt with tan and green labels. A very good set.
Smith’s Wealth of Nations had first appeared in French in 1778-9 in an anonymous translation, followed a second by Jean-Louis Blavet in 1781. Roucher’s translation first appeared in four volumes in 1790-1. Jean-Antoine Roucher (1745–94) was a poet from Montpellier, friend and admirer of J.-J. Rousseau. He welcomed the Revolution, but was arrested in the Terror and went to the guillotine. Rochedieu 304; Goldsmiths 14106; Kress B, 1986. K. E. Carpenter, The Dissemination of The Wealth of Nations in French and in France, New York, 2002, pp. 85-87.