Is My Du contrat social a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Amsterdam: Marc-Michel Rey, 1762
• The true first is the octavo (in-8, approx
• 197 x 126 mm), which Rey completed in March 1762
• It carries an engraved copper title vignette of Justice seated, holding a balance in one hand and a cap on the end of a staff in the other, and Rey's own catalogue at the end
• The octavo exists in two title-page settings, conventionally lettered A and B after Dufour and Tchemerzine (V, p
• 543); dealers describe B as the later, corrected setting, in which the words 'Du contrat social' are dropped from the title page proper and carried instead by the half-title (the semicolon retained), with the final gathering X running from p

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
3. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

No UK/US question — the original language is French and Rey's Amsterdam octavo of 1762 is the true first. The census is right that the octavo has priority but wrong that the two Rey formats were simultaneous: Rey printed and finished the octavo in March 1762 and only then set the cheaper duodecimo, completed some six weeks later (sources place it in April or mid-May). The genuine hazard is piracy, not format. Eleven counterfeit editions dated 1762 and two dated 1763 are recorded, in both octavo and duodecimo, and all but one falsely bear Rey's Amsterdam address — the Lyon piracy of Jean-Baptiste Réguilliat being the first to add the apocryphal letter and the marriage note. The imprint therefore proves nothing; verification runs on ornament and setting. Counterfeits omit the ornament at p. 76 and set page 1, line 7 ending in 'utili' rather than the genuine 'uti-'. One recorded counterfeit has a retouched vignette and shows characteristics of both states of the original, so a single point should never be relied on alone.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue exists for a 1762 imprint. The reprint and 'first thus' tells are: the thirteen recorded eighteenth-century piracies bearing Rey's false Amsterdam address (identified by the p. 76 ornament and the p. 1 line-7 break, as above), variously from Lyon, Rouen and probably Paris; Rey's own later duodecimo and subsequent Amsterdam printings; and modern facsimiles and print-on-demand copies, which show machine-made paper, modern casing and a photographically reproduced engraved vignette.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Du contrat social a first edition?

A first edition of Du contrat social by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Marc-Michel Rey, Amsterdam) is identified by: Amsterdam: Marc-Michel Rey, 1762.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). No UK/US question — the original language is French and Rey's Amsterdam octavo of 1762 is the true first.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club issue exists for a 1762 imprint. The reprint and 'first thus' tells are: the thirteen recorded eighteenth-century piracies bearing Rey's false Amsterdam address (identified by the p. 76 ornament and the p. 1 line-7 break, as above), variously from Lyon, Rouen and probably Paris; Rey's own later duodecimo and subsequent Amsterdam printings; and modern facsimiles and print-on-demand copies, which show machine-made paper, modern casing and a photographically reproduced engraved vignett

I have a first edition of Du contrat social — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.