Nassy, David de Isaac Cohen, and others. Essai historique sur la colonie de Surinam. Paramaribo, 1788 — Geschiedenis der Kolonie van Suriname. Amsterdam en Harlingen, 1791

[French edition]. 2 volumes in one, 8vo (8 1/8  x 5 in.; 207 x 128 mm). 8 pages of export charts (pp. 88-95); some foxing, scattered holes on pp. 185–192 costing a few letters. Contemporary calf; worn, joints starting at spine ends.— [Dutch edition]: 2 volumes in one, 8vo (8 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.; 210 x 121 mm). Folding table (export chart). Modern half brown morocco over marbled boards, spine gilt.

[French edition]: Jacob Olivier of St. Eustache. [Dutch edition]: P. C. Spilcher

French edition: Sabin 51894; Dutch edition: STCN (Short Title Catalog Netherlands) Den Haag KB: 893 H 24; R. Bijlsma, "David de Is. C. Nassy, Author of the Essai Historique sur Suriname," in Robert Cohen, ed., The Jewish Nation in Surinam; Jacob Marcus and Stanley Chyet, eds., trans. Simon Cohen, Historical Essay on the Colony of Surinam, 1788 (Cincinnati, New York, 1974)

First edition in French. David de Isaac Cohen Nassy, a physician and publicist as well as a Jewish community leader, was scion of Surinam's leading Sephardic family and president of the Regenten (directors) of the local Jewish community.  In this capacity he was the first signatory of a communication to the German Christian advocate of Jewish rights, Christian Wilhelm von Dohm. At the latter's request, Nassy, along with the other Regenten composed this detailed two-volume study of Jewish life in Surinam, Essai historique sur la Colonie de Surinam, originally printed in French, which has the distinction of being the earliest known work printed at Paramaribo; three years later it was translated into Dutch. A copy of the Dutch edition is included in the lot.  

A colony of Jewish exiles from Holland had settled and thrived in Brazil in the mid-sixteenth century; in 1654 they were ousted by the Portuguese. Instead of returning to Europe, the Jewish community decided to seek another home in the Americas. Having obtained a charter from the West India Company, they established a colony in Cayenne (later French Guiana) in 1659. When expulsed from Cayenne in 1664 by French colonists, they removed to the English possession of Surinam.

With the Jews forming a sizable segment of the non-slave population of Surinam, the Essai still serves not only as the primary source of the history of the Jews of Dutch Guiana, but as an important scholarly resource for information on the colony as a whole.  Both editions contain the text of the original Dutch charter and both provide an extensive chart of exported items for the years 1780–1788.  The latter appears within the text in the French edition and as an added folding table at the end of the Dutch edition.