Is My Émile, ou De l'éducation a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The true first is Duchesne's Paris printing of 1762 in four volumes, issued in two formats: a duodecimo carrying the false imprint 'A Amsterdam, Chez Jean Neaulme' (McEachern 1b) and an octavo carrying the false imprint 'A La Haye, Chez Jean Néaulme'
• Titles are printed in red and black, with five engravings including frontispieces after Charles Eisen
• Half-titles are normally absent from volume I but present in volumes II–IV, and the blank leaf P12 in volume III is usually excised
• The octavo is normally found with all four cancels; copies retaining the cancellanda (the original uncancelled leaves) are exceedingly rare — McEachern located a single copy, at Stuttgart, holding the two cancellanda of volume I, and none at all for volume II. McEachern records that the duodecimo sheets were set and printed first and then re-imposed for printing in octavo, but that the octavo appears to have been issued first, and states that the question of the order of printing 'has not yet been resolved to everyone's satisfaction' — so no confident 12mo-versus-8vo precedence should be asserted

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. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. 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.
4. 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?

A French original-language first; there is no competing true first in another language. The census note requires correction on one point: no 1762 issue carries a Paris imprint. Both collected Duchesne formats bear false Néaulme imprints — Amsterdam on the duodecimo, The Hague on the octavo — and both are collected as the first edition. Separately, under an agreement of November 1761 with Duchesne, Jean Néaulme produced a genuine parallel Amsterdam edition for distribution outside France; scholarship treats it as a distinct edition (Quaerendo 48:2, 2018, on the imprint formula 'Selon la Copie de Paris. Avec Permission tacite pour le Libraire') and it should not be conflated with the Duchesne printings.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Book-club issues do not exist for an eighteenth-century title. The operative trap is that a 'Jean Néaulme' 1762 imprint by itself establishes nothing, since Néaulme's own genuine parallel Amsterdam edition also exists alongside Duchesne's two false-imprint formats. Collate format (12mo versus 8vo), the five Eisen plates, the red-and-black titles, the half-title pattern across volumes I–IV, and the cancels against McEachern rather than reading the imprint at face value.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Émile, ou De l'éducation a first edition?

A first edition of Émile, ou De l'éducation by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Nicolas-Bonaventure Duchesne, Paris — issued under false Néaulme imprints) is identified by: The true first is Duchesne's Paris printing of 1762 in four volumes, issued in two formats: a duodecimo carrying the false imprint 'A Amsterdam, Chez Jean Neaulme' (McEachern 1b) and an octavo carrying the false imprint 'A La Haye, Chez Jean Néaulme'.

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

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. A French original-language first; there is no competing true first in another language.

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

Book-club issues do not exist for an eighteenth-century title. The operative trap is that a 'Jean Néaulme' 1762 imprint by itself establishes nothing, since Néaulme's own genuine parallel Amsterdam edition also exists alongside Duchesne's two false-imprint formats. Collate format (12mo versus 8vo), the five Eisen plates, the red-and-black titles, the half-title pattern across volumes I–IV, and the cancels against McEachern rather than reading the imprint at face value.

I have a first edition of Émile, ou De l'éducation — 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.