SAUSSURE (Ferdinand de). Cours de linguistique générale. Lausanne, Paris: Librairie Payot & Cie, 1916. - In-8, dark brown half-chagrin, spine ribbed, cover preserved (period binding). Sought-after first edition. Considered the founding text of the science of language, this work was published by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, with the collaboration of Albert Riedlinger, based on the lectures on linguistics given by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) in Geneva. He distinguished language (a system of signs) from speech (individual use), and defined the linguistic sign as the arbitrary union of a signifier (form) and a signified (concept). He also contrasts synchronicity (the study of a language at a given point in time) and diachronicity (its evolution), and shows that the meaning of words depends on their relationships within the linguistic system. This book thus founded structuralism and left its mark on the human sciences. There was no large print run. Copy in contemporary binding. Spine faded and showing wear.