DROUET DE MAUPERTUY (Jean-Baptiste). Le Commerce des femmes dangereux pour les ecclésiastiques. Cologne [Lyon ?]: Gaspard Foéppens, 1713. - In-12, 140 x 79 : (1 f.), pp. 7-419, (1 f.). Tan calf, gilt roulette on the boards, smooth spine decorated, gilt roulette inside, red edges (late 18th or early 19th century binding). Extremely rare first edition of this work of theology and religious morality by the abbot Jean-Baptiste Drouet de Maupertuy (1650-1730). This is the first version of this text that the author will republish in 1715, with revised, corrected, and excised passages, and some "softened", under the title Le Commerce dangereux entre les deux sexes. The work is divided into 13 chapters. Thus, in chapter 2, "the causes of the inclination that man has for woman are investigated" by showing that "The devil uses this inclination to subjugate the nobler Sex to the weaker Sex.» In chapter 4, it is shown that ecclesiastics should "carefully avoid all familiarity with women, of whatever age, condition or reputation for sanctity they may be; above all with nuns, even if they are their relatives. In chapter 10, the author, through 10 articles, "refutes the reasons that are given in favour of the trade that is supposed to be possible between ecclesiastics and sex". The printing of this first version of the text was very quickly stopped and the copies already made were destroyed, with the exception, it is said, of 7 or 8. This precision is given in the Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences & des beaux arts, published in Trévoux in May 1714, pages 1122-1123. The edition is so rare that no copy is listed on the WorldCat. A copy of which pages 349-360, which were missing, have been replaced by a handwritten copy of the missing passages, certainly made at the time of binding. The table of chapters has been completed by hand by a reader, certainly the one who rewrote the missing passages of the book, specifying the pages corresponding to the chapters and enriching the description of chapters 3 and 9. Cracks and tears at the hinge of the first board, stains on the boards, dull corners . Some scattered foxing.