"A Plea Against Religious Fanaticism" Disguised as a Fictional Account of Conquistadors in Peru

Marmontel, Jean-Francois

[FICTIONAL ACCOUNT OF PERU, 1817 - UNRECORDED EDITION]. Les incas ou la destruction de l'empire du Perou

Paris: Guillaume et Companie, Libraire, rue Hautefeuille, no. 14, 1817. 2 vols., small 12mo. 233, [3]; 250, [4] pp. With 2 engraved frontispieces. Contemporary French mottled sheep (extremities worn and bumped; back cover of vol. 2 abraided with loss, leather on front hinge quite worn but the board is quite attached), marbled pastedowns and endpapers, all edges marbled. Text with minor foxing but completely unmarked and unspoiled. NOT ex-library! Good. Item #3616

No copy of this edition has been located, despite extensive searching. KVK and FirstSearch list a digital surrogate (only), but the link wrongly points to a completely different edition (Ledentu) which consists of 288 + 332 pages. The two frontispieces in our edition appear to be reverse copies of the illustrations executed by J.M. Moreau le jeune for Lacombe's 1777 edition (the first illustrated).

The political, philosophical, and theological significance of this novel is very considerable, and Marmontel's text was quickly translated into German, English, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Swedish, and Spanish. Luciano Pellegrini explains its lasting importance, and its relevance to modern readers:

"'Les Incas' presents a moment of the Conquistadors. Using the knowledge on the subject accumulated over the years and numerous readings, Marmontel traces an epic picture of the conquest of Peru by Pizarro and his companions. Not to praise it, but to underline its violence and show the monitory end of the empire of 'the most human people in the universe.' [...] It is a plea against religious fanaticism, understood as 'the spirit of intolerance and persecution, the spirit of hatred and vengeance, for the cause of a God whom one believes irritated, and of whom one makes himself the Ministers. [...]. Pizarro remains responsible for the atrocities committed by his men, without really sharing them. [...] One could notice the presence of attitudes of colonial domination in [Alonzo de Molina's] love for the native Cora. These very real ambiguities are, however, inseparable from the philosophical commitment of 'Les Incas.' They even touch on the project of universal tolerance carried by Marmontel and largely contribute to the literary quality of a novel which had a success for more than a century." SOURCE: Luciano Pellegrini, review of the 2016 critical edition (Paris, Garnier) edited by Pierino Gallo, in: Eighteenth-Century Fiction, 32:1 (Fall 2019) 228-231.

Not located in CCFR or COPAC, in addition to KVK and FirstSearch.

Price: $300.00