Storia dell'America settentrionale. by Raynal, Guillaume Thomas François - 1778

Venezia: dalle stampe di Antonio Zatta, 1778. 8vo (19 cm; 7.5"). 2 vols. in 1, of 3. I: iii, 288 pp. II: [2] f., 294 [i.e., 298] pp.

Guillaume Thomas François Raynal (1713–96) wrote his seven-volume account of the European colonies in the East and West Indies with the help of the coteries of philosophes whose salons he frequented: Indeed Diderot is credited with the authorship of up to a third of it, and Holbach, Pechméja, and Paulze also contributed.
    This Italian translation is of Books 17 and 18 of the original seven-volume work (first published Amsterdam, 1770, and an anonymous continuation); dealing strictly with North America, it has much to say about the political turmoil of the English colonies, the Continental Congress, etc., but also about Canada, native Americans, the border regions of Florida and Louisiana, and French interests.
    A third volume that appeared in 1780, but is not present here, carried the story "fino alla primavera del 1779 nella quale, oltre alla guerra civile trà la Gran Bretagna, e le Colonie Unite, si descrive anche quella trà la prima, e la Francia.
    
    Echeverria & Wilkie, French Image, 778/67. Contemporary vellum over paste boards, gilt caramel-colored spine label, all edges blue. Some gatherings of leaves browned from impurities in the water during the paper manufacture, and occasional foxing or other light staining. Without vol. 3, later published, and, that aside, a => rather nice copy.