Richer - Grands Événemens par les Petites Causes - 1773

WHEN A DETAIL CHANGES HISTORY: THE SMALL CAUSES OF ADRIEN RICHER
ABSTRACT
A curious and brilliant work of the French Enlightenment dedicated to the great historical events originated by apparently insignificant circumstances. Adrien Richer builds a vast collection of episodes drawn from ancient and modern history, showing how passions, errors, fortuitous encounters, and small incidents can alter the destinies of kingdoms and peoples. Published anonymously on the title page but attributed with certainty to Richer, the work enjoyed numerous editions throughout the eighteenth century. This “Nouvelle Édition” of 1773 brings together the two volumes of the work, printed in Geneva and distributed in Paris by Gueffier. An interesting example of eighteenth-century anecdotal historiography, halfway between history, moral philosophy, and curiosity literature.

WHY TO BUY
COMPLETE TWO-VOLUME SET – A specimen composed of the two volumes of the “Nouvelle Édition” of 1773, preserved in their coordinated bindings.
A FASCINATING ENLIGHTENMENT IDEA – A work built around a surprisingly modern concept: small events and individual decisions can produce enormous historical consequences.
ATTRACTIVE PERIOD BINDINGS – Charming eighteenth-century spines decorated in gold with floral motifs, inlays and volume numbering, paired with marbled boards.
A WIDELY READ EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY WORK – The book’s editorial success is documented by several editions and even foreign translations; the first part appeared in 1758 and the follow-up in 1759.

MARKET VALUE
The commercial value of the work depends significantly on the edition, completeness, and especially the quality of the binding. For this complete two-volume exemplar, 1773 edition, with period decorative bindings but showing signs of use and small defects, a reasonable antique market range can be indicated at about €350–500.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Two volumes. Contemporary bindings with gold-decorated leather spines featuring floral and vegetal motifs, gold fillets, inlays with title and volume numbering; marbled boards. Colored edges. Interiors printed on good eighteenth-century paper. Numerous typographical ornaments, headpieces and tailpieces woodcut. Generally fresh paper, with some physiological foxing, small stains and signs of time. Bindings with abrasions, edge wear and at the headcaps. In old books with a centuries-long history, some imperfections may be present, not always detectable in the description. This listing contains AI Views. Refer to the original photographs to verify the actual condition of the object. The images are an integral part of the description. Pp.:
Vol. I: (4); 342; (4).
Vol. II: (4); 4nn; 22; 260; 2nn; (4).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Essai sur les grands événemens par les petites causes, tiré de l’histoire.
A Genève, et se trouve à Paris, chez Gueffier, 1773.
Adrien Richer.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The principle governing the book is simple yet extremely effective: behind many great events in history lies a small cause, accidental or seemingly irrelevant. Richer collects episodes from classical antiquity, medieval history, and modern European history. His “small causes” can be amorous passions, personal rivalries, errors of judgment, incidents, mispronounced words, animals, impulsive gestures, or everyday events capable of producing wars, revolutions, dynastic successions, and political changes. Among the examples already evident from the index of the work are Semiramis, Helen and the Trojan War, Roman episodes, the Decemviri, and many events in European history. An eighteenth-century review of the “Nouvel Essai” listed among the most curious examples an apple causing the exile of an empress, a hare indirectly responsible for the capture of Rome, a jar of balm capable of provoking a war in France, and even the pronunciation of the letter “Q” at the origin of a university dispute. The work thus belongs to that eighteenth-century culture which sought to transform history into a school of human conduct, offering the reader not only facts but psychological mechanisms and causal connections.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Adrien Richer was born in 1720 and died in 1798. He was a French historian, biographer, and compiler, particularly active in the second half of the eighteenth century. His production was very extensive and includes historical and biographical works, among which Histoire des Américains, Histoire moderne des Chinois, des Japonnois, des Indiens, des Persans, des Turcs, des Russiens, Les Vies des hommes illustres comparés les uns avec les autres and numerous lives of famous people and navigators. Richer specialized mainly in a historiography aimed at the educated but non-specialist public, organizing episodes and biographies in narrative and morally edifying form.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The book’s editorial history is particularly interesting. The first part, Essai sur les grands événemens par les petites causes, appeared in Geneva and Paris at Hardy in 1758. A second volume, initially presented as Nouvel Essai sur les grands événemens par les petites causes, appeared in 1759. A contemporary review in the Journal des Dames confirms the existence and diffusion of this sequel by March 1759. By 1760 the work was already available in a two-part edition published by E. van Harrevelt. Further Parisian editions are documented, including Gueffier in 1764, while in 1773 the present “Nouvelle Édition” appeared, still bibliographically attributed to Adrien Richer. International success is also attested by translations. A German version, Große Begebenheiten aus kleinen Ursachen, had already appeared in Berlin and Leipzig in 1759. The work also found reception in Eastern Europe, with Russian translations in the late eighteenth century, further proof of the fortune of Richer’s curious historiographical model.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Bibliothèque nationale de France, French bibliographic catalogs, entry Adrien Richer.

Google Books, Adrien Richer, Essai sur les grands évènemens par les petites causes, tiré de l’histoire, edition 1760.

Google Books / Google Play Books, Essai sur les grands evenemens par les petites causes, 1773, Tome II.

Geneanet Bibliothèque, Essai sur les grands événemens par les petites causes, attribution to Adrien Richer and bibliographic description.

Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Große Begebenheiten aus kleinen Ursachen, Berlin-Leipzig 1759, German translation of Richer’s work.

Journal des Dames, March 1759, review of the Nouvel Essai sur les grands événemens par les petites causes.

Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique de Grimm et Diderot, mention of Richer’s Essai sur les grands événemens par les petites causes.

French antiquarian and auction catalogs: Dodecade, Ruellan, Sotheby’s, for bibliographic and market comparisons.

WorldCat, international library catalogs, under Adrien Richer and Essai sur les grands événemens par les petites causes.

CERL Heritage of the Printed Book Database, search by author, title and typographic variants.

Catalogue collectif de France / BnF, repertories of eighteenth-century French editions.