MANUAL (B. E.). Primer. Containing, with the figure of the most common objects, and their name inscribed in the middle, the Natural History of the domestic animals or the most known, moralized, and put at the range of the childhood. A work intended for Fathers and Mothers who wish to give their Children, of both sexes, the first nourishment of a useful reading and an interesting instruction, as well as for the Teachers of Primary Schools. At Fr. Dufart, Printer and Bookseller, rue Honoré, Maison d'Auvergne, n° 100. In Paris. Third year of the Republic. [1794-1795]. In-8 (22 x 14,3 cm). XXXVI, 116 pp, frontispiece, 15 plates (15 x 10,5 cm approx.): untrimmed, contemporary blue paper covers, modern almond green paper covered folder and slipcase. Unique edition. Revolutionary alphabet book. It is illustrated with sixteen copper-engraved plates, frontispiece with Adam and Eve and fifteen plates of nine illustrations with the initials at the head (no X, W and Z). After an alphabet page: long preface by the author, B. E. Manuel, born in 1760, where he invites teachers to address complaints to the Government to ask for "the promised new books and the prompt establishment of public education in [their] elementary school." He advocates the urgency of a new instruction and regrets having to address Men in a work intended for the instruction of children. The engraved plates applied in border on the page, and of smaller format than the book, contain nine occurrences which, as indicated on the title page, appear mainly known objects, animals and plants - "L'Amour maternel" begins however the first plate. The author was a professor at the Écoles centrales of the department of the Seine under the Directoire and a member of the Society of Natural History of Paris [BnF]. In a very familiar speech, by speaking to the child, he transforms the didactic account into a story. The last three pages of the book reflect with violence the measures of dechristianization. Only one complete copy in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. [A second one: University of Maryland Libraries with only three plates]. Mouse-tracking on the lower outer corner of nine leaves, without damage to the text, and on the last one, with damage, as well as on the second cover.