Abstract
A cluster of questions thus centers around the next French edition,1 the first to be posthumously published, and the first to bear the author’s name. This is the reputedly “rare” 1788 printing.
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On the occasion of a 1906 Réunion dedicated to Turgot, M. E. Levasseur, president of the Société d’économie politique, Paris, read the audience the following information about Réflexions: “…dans les Ephêmérides du citoyen en 1766, réédité en 1774, 1778, 1784, 1788…” Of these, the only information we have on any save the first and last is to the effect that the 1774 edition “doesn’t exist.” (E. Leser, Der Begriff des Reichthums bei Adam Smith, p.87).
“Rarissime,” in the fine penmanship of E. R. A. Seligman, on one of the outer leaves of the calfskin-bound, gold-tooled copy of the “1766” edition, is followed by the lines above his initials, “Il n’y a que 2 ou 3 exemplaires qui existent au monde” Ashley’s Preface contains the statement that of the 100 or 150 made up, none had survived. According to G. Schelle (1888), “all have disappeared.”
E. R. A. Seligman, in penned lines infinitesimally fine, notes on the lower corner, “Ces mots étaient écrits au crayon et presqu’entièrement effacés je les ai repassé à la plume.”
The text ends on p. 165. The page overleaf, 166, is blank and unfolioed. Page 167, unnumbered also, is headed ERRATA. The corrections are made in ink, and skilfully. Cf. Schelle, Oeuvres, III, p. 383, Turgot to Dupont, 23 March, 1770, “Here is an errata for the work of Monsieur Y. who would like to be able to find someone who, being paid to, would properly correct the most essential of these faults.” Easily one-third the “faults” are not verifiable errors. Turgot has perhaps his previous copy in mind, and is working from recollection; or he is simply using the occasions to improve his style in various places.
E. Daire & H. Dussard, Oeuvres de Turgot, II, p. 833. Letter of 5 May, 1774, in which Turgot adds, “take it out entirely, and change the numbers of the following ‘paragraphs.’ This discussion interrupts the thread of ideas…”
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© 1964 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Lundberg, I.C. (1964). Epigram. In: Turgot’s Unknown Translator. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9592-8_4
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