De La Bienfaisance Publique. GÉRANDO, Joseph Marie de.

First edition of this comprehensive study of poverty and poor relief in post-Napoleonic France. Joseph Marie de Gérando (1772-1842) attained high office under Napoleon as a soldier and civil servant; he then maintained an ambivalent relationship with the restored Bourbons, who eventually elevated him to the peerage as Baron de Gérando. Goldsmiths 31113. 4 vols, octavo (207 x 129 mm). Folding table at rear of vol. IV and wood-engraved publisher's device to title pages of vols. I, III, & IV. Near-contemporary Russian blue pebble-grain cloth, rebacked with purple morocco, spines lettered in gilt and ruled and decorated in black, covers with single-filet panel in blind. Near-contemporary ink binder's stamp of Petr Romanovich Barash, a 19th-century Russian bookbinder, to each vol. Near-contemporary blue ink stamps and library marks of the Leipzig chamber of commerce to preliminaries and title pages. Light bumping and rubbing, damp staining to rear cover of vol. IV, faint sunning to spines, infrequent foxing and offsetting to contents: a very good copy.