THE DEFENSE OF GRACCHUS BABEUF BEFORE THE HIGH COURT OF VENDOME

Northampton: The Gehenna Press, 1964. First Edition. Thomas Cornell. 4to., full leather chemise laid in a cloth-covered clamshell box with a leather spine. (ii), 83, (5) pages in addition to 21 etched portraits printed on special paper and loosely inserted throughout the text. The paper is Nideggen made in Germany, and the pressman was Harold McGrath. The suite of etchings were printed by Emiliano Sorini in New York and it was designed and produced by Leonard Baskin. Printed in an edition limited to 300 numbered copies. This is called a "printer's copy", signed by Leonard Baskin. which contains twenty-one etched portraits signed by Thomas Cornell on blue Fabriano, enclosed in unbound, uncut signatures. Brook 36; Baskin 36. The "First Revolutionary Communist", French political agitator and revolutionary, Francois Noel (Gracchus) Babeuf (1760-1797) led the so called "Conspiracy of Equals" against the French Directory. This was the first violent attempt to install socialism in a country. The plot was denounced and a wave of arrests were made on May 10, 1796. A High Court of Justice was held in Vendome in October of 1796 and Babeuf was executed.
Selected for translation in this volume is the first part of Babeuf's general defense.