[HELVETIUS]. De l'Esprit. A Paris, Chez Durand, libraire, 17 - Lot 81

[HELVETIUS]. De l'Esprit. A Paris, Chez Durand, libraire, 1758. In-4°, calf, ornate ribbed spine, morocco title-piece (period binding). ORIGINAL EDITION of print run B (second issue) published before the cancellation of the privilege on August 8, 1758, thus censoring the work. It bears the characteristic boxes on pages 5 ("de mon"), 152 ("veuglement") and 550 ("je"). Helvetius's masterwork, based on Locke's profoundly materialistic and atheistic philosophy. It was condemned by the Archbishop of Paris, censored by the Sorbonne and seized by the Parliament to be burned, but this did not prevent it from being reprinted. The text, one of the few published during the author's lifetime, is written in the spirit of the Encyclopedists, containing, according to the Sorbonne, "all the poisons found in the various modern books, presented as a code of the most odious and infamous passions [...] encouraging vice [...]." Some damage (headbands, spinebands and corners, epidermis); light foxing and spotting on a few pages.