De La Borde - Il Genio delle Nazioni - 1764

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THE CHARACTER OF NATIONS BEFORE ANTHROPOLOGY: CLIMATE, CUSTOMS, POLITICS AND CIVILIZATION
Fascinating work of European Enlightenment dedicated to one of the great questions of the eighteenth century: why do peoples and nations develop such different characters, customs, political institutions, and behaviors? The genius of nations is the Italian translation of the French work by François-Ignace d’Espiard de La Borde, an author who sought to interpret systematically the differences among peoples through the influence of climate, environment, education, institutions, laws, and customs. The work anticipates themes that would become central in cultural anthropology, sociology, and political philosophy: national character, the relation between environment and society, the origin of cultural differences, education, urbanity, forms of government, monarchy and republic, political liberty, legislation, and the relationship between individual virtue and institutions. Of particular interest are the continuous comparisons among French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Greek, Roman, Asian peoples, and other civilizations. Book three directly tackles the different forms of government, comparing monarchies, republics, and ancient and modern political systems. Venetian edition of 1764, enriched by a graceful allegorical frontispiece and a title page featuring a medallion of Cicero.

MARKET VALUE
An interesting work in the antique market primarily for its Enlightenment, proto-anthropological, and political content, as well as for the presence of the allegorical frontispiece. The photographed copy presents Volume One; the note indicates that the overall work continued in additional parts: recommended price: €380–440.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
2 volumes. Antique calfskin binding with marbled paper in brown tones. Simple spine with remnants of an old paper label. Allegorical frontispiece engraved in copper, signed on the plate, depicting a complex personification of nations and civilizations with a globe, obelisk, monuments, books, instruments, and symbolic figures. Title page with a large engravographic vignette including a portrait medallion of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Numerous borders, initials, and historiated or ornate initials in the text. Large-margin paper, largely untrimmed, with evident rashness. Binding with wear, abrasions, small superficial losses, defects to the headcaps and corners, and partial loss of the label on the spine. Natural waviness of the paper, some physiological browning, sporadic stains and halos, occasional small tears or marginal defects, and traces of time. In antique books, with a multisecular history, there may be some imperfections not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 10nn; 212; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Il genio delle nazioni. Tomo Primo, [Tomo Secondo]
In Venezia, Appresso Giacomo Caroboli, e Domenico Pompeati, 1764.
François-Ignace d’Espiard de La Borde.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Il Genio delle nazioni belongs to a crucial phase of European culture when philosophers and scholars began seeking systematic explanations of differences among human societies without relying exclusively on dynastic history or religion. One of the central concepts is the “genius of the nation”: an aggregate of inclinations, customs, behaviors, and institutions that would characterize each people. The author explicitly distinguishes “physical” and “moral” causes. Among the former he assigns great importance to climate, geography, nutrition, and natural conditions; among the latter he considers education, laws, government, religion, customs, and history. The work thus belongs to the same great intellectual era in which Montesquieu had investigated the relation between climate, laws, and political forms in the Esprit des lois. The comparative character is particularly significant. The author continually compares European nations: he discusses French temperament, urbanity and civilization, English character, Italian customs, and the differences between northern and southern peoples. He also extends to Greeks, Romans, Persians, Chinese, and other civilizations. In the third book the discussion becomes openly political. A chapter is devoted to the “different Governments in relation to virtue and talents,” distinguishing monarchy, tempered monarchy, and republican government. Other chapters analyze republics, ancient and modern political institutions, and even the governance of China. Naturally, many national generalizations belong fully to the mindset of the eighteenth century and today have mainly historical value. Precisely for this reason the work constitutes a remarkable testimony to the birth of comparative study of societies in Europe and to the modern idea of national character.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
François-Ignace d’Espiard de La Borde was a French eighteenth-century author best known for his reflections on the character of peoples and the influence of natural and social conditions on different civilizations. His work fits into the philosophical culture that precedes and accompanies mature Enlightenment thinking and participates in the search for general causes capable of explaining the diversity of human societies. D’Espiard is remembered mainly in the history of climatic theories and of the “genius of nations”: the idea that environment, institutions, and customs contribute to the formation of recognizable collective characteristics. His work thus belongs to the intellectual genealogy that leads from eighteenth-century moral and political philosophy to the subsequent comparative disciplines devoted to societies and cultures.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The French work of d’Espiard circulated in the eighteenth century in different forms and editions within the intense European debate on the character of nations. The notion of “national genius” was then at the center of a broader discussion involving language, literature, climate, education, and political institutions. The debate on the relationship between “genius” of language and national character had particular importance in European culture between the 16th and 18th centuries. The Venetian translation of 1764 documents the penetration of these theories into Enlightenment Italy. Venetian Venice in the latter half of the eighteenth century was one of the main Italian centers for the circulation and translation of foreign works, within a broader program of cultural updating on French and British experiences. The edition was published by Giacomo Caroboli and Domenico Pompeati and subjected to the usual Venetian revision process: the exemplar preserves the authorization of the Reformers of the Studium of Padua dated April 16, 1764. The presence of the engravers’ allegorical frontispiece, Cicero’s medallion, and a relatively rich ornamental apparatus also show that the Italian edition was not conceived as a simple practical translation, but as an accurate editorial publication intended for the cultured public of the Republic of Venice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
François-Ignace d’Espiard de La Borde, Il genio delle nazioni. Translation from French to Italian by B.T.F., Venezia, Giacomo Caroboli e Domenico Pompeati, 1764.
François-Ignace d’Espiard de La Borde, French works dedicated to the génie, to customs and to the governance of nations.
Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois, 1748, fundamental reference point for the eighteenth-century theories on the influence of climate and institutions.
18th-century European literature on the génie des nations, on national character and on the relationships between language, culture, and collective identity.
Studies on Venetian 18th-century culture and on the circulation and translation in the Venetian area of European philosophical and political works.