Paris : Chez Gissey, Bordelet & Ganeau... 1739. First Edition.
12mo, [-]2, A-N8.4., 2f, 157, [3] pp, cont. mottled calf, gilt spine, corners worn, hinges neatly repaired.
One of the more interesting of a number of 18th century ‘philosophical’ works advocating the then radical idea that animals, far from being driven purely by instinct, could communicate with one another in their own language. A fact of which the work of Konrad Lorenz and many other modern naturalists has left us in no doubt. At the time of its publication however it caused considerable moral outrage and the author was exiled to La Fleche.