La Palingenesie Philosophique ou Idees sur l'Etat Passe et sur l'Etat Futur des Etres Vivants..

Amsterdam: Reynal, 1769. hardcover. 2 volumes in one. xxiv, 263; [5], 170, [2]pp. Short 8vo, bound in full contemporary calf; gilt spine with red & black labels (rubbed but sound and attractive); marbled endpapers, red edges. Amsterdam: Chez Marc-Michel Rey, 1769. Dutch edition, published the same year as the first Geneva edition. Charles Bonnet (1720-1793) was a Swiss naturalist with with wide-ranging interests including entymology, botany, psychology, religion and philosophy. This is his last important work, dealing with the past and future of living beings, before and after death. "He was an enthusiastic champion of preformation, the theory postulating that the animal already existed in miniature in the germ cell." -DSB; Caillet 1403. (Inventory #: 170748)