# Is "Du contrat social" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Du contrat social by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Marc-Michel Rey, Amsterdam, 1762) is identified by: Amsterdam: Marc-Michel Rey, 1762. No UK/US question — the original language is French and Rey's Amsterdam octavo of 1762 is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- 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
- Publisher imprint reads Marc-Michel Rey, Amsterdam

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
| Publisher | Marc-Michel Rey, Amsterdam |
| Year | 1762 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Amsterdam: Marc-Michel Rey, 1762 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## 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. 321 to the end without the footnote on civil/republican marriage in France, Rey's catalogue following. Rey's own duodecimo (in-12) is a separate, later printing: it collates (2), VIII, 202, (2) pp., carries ornaments at pp. VIII, 30 and 76, and page 1, line 7 ends with the broken word 'uti-'. No number line, edition statement, printed price or dust jacket applies to the period; contemporary calf or vellum is the expected dress.

## 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.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Du contrat social* by Jean-Jacques Rousseau a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/du-contrat-social
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.