Historia del luxo, y de las leyes suntuarias de España.

Madrid, En la Imprenta Real, 1788.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 2 volumes in 1. 8°, contemporary Spanish tree calf, smooth spine gilt with red and black morocco lettering pieces, text-block edges rouged (some worming at foot of spine and joints, light wear). Small typographical vignette on title-pages. Occasional slight marginal spotting. In fine condition. 24, 200 pp.; (1 l.), 219 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION, with lengthy excerpts describing extravagant dress and spending and substantial quotes from the laws that attempted to control them from Roman times to the eighteenth century. "Though not devoid of economic errors worthy of censure, it deserves praise in that it shows the futility and ineffectiveness of the laws condemning lavishness," comments Colmeiro. Sempere y Guarinos approached the problem of lavish spending as a mercantilist, condemning the extravagance of luxury as a vice, but finding it inevitable in a society that encouraged inequality and admired a man more for his ostentation than for his virtue and moderation. Such consumption was a necessity because it kept industry, and the state, thriving. Herr considers Sempere one of the outstanding members of the Amigos del País of Madrid, an early economic society (The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain, p. 163).Sempere y Guarinos (1754-1830), a native of Elda in Alicante, a historian of law, literature and institutions, is known for his prologue and translation of Muratori's Riflessioni sopra il buon gusto intorno le scienze e le arti, 1782, which helped disseminate Muratori's neoclassical ideas in Spain. The prologue was later expanded to the six-volume Ensayo de una biblioteca española de los mejores escritores del reinado de Carlos III, 1785-89, which remains a useful bibliographical reference for its period.*** Palau 307412: calling for 200, 219 pp. Aguilar Piñal VII, 4611: without collation. Colmeiro, Bibliografía de los economistas españoles 360: without collation. Goldsmiths 12676. Not in Kress. On the author, see Ward, Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature p. 538.