§ DESCARTES (René). Discourse of the method to... Lot 357

§ DESCARTES (René). Discourse of the method to lead one's reason & seek the truth in science. Plus Dioptrics. Meteors. and Geometry which are tests of this method. Leiden, from the printing house of Jan Maire, 1637. In-4 of 78 pp., (1) f. intermediate title for the Dioptrique, 413, (1) pp., (17) ff. for the tables, the erratum and the French and Dutch privileges (pp. 154, 155, 156 are unencrypted: pp. 154 and 156 are white, p. 155. bears the title "Les Météores"; p. 295 and 296 unencrypted: title "La géométrie" and "Advertissement"). The French privilege is of May 4, 1637 and the printing completion of June 8, 1637; the Dutch privilege is of December 20, 1636. 152 woodcut figures in the text. The Discourse occupies the first 78 pages. Brown calf, spine ribbed and decorated, title page (contemporary binding). Size of leaves : 19 x 14 cm. Rubbed binding, used headdresses and corners (upper headdress missing), skins and some small lacks of leather on the cover, without the second marbled paper endpapers, upper margin sometimes a little short but without damage to the text; small scattered freckles, rare stitches, small red stains pp. 171 to 178 and on the ff. Hhh2/3/4 of the tables, qqs light light marginal wetnesses, angle of ff. D3 to Bb (pp. 29 to 192 of the Dioptre and Meteors) gnawed on 1 x 4 cm maximum. Apart from these acceptable defects, a good specimen. RARE ORIGINAL EDITION, especially in original binding, for this work of universal scope, the fundamental work of René DESCARTES (1596-1650) which opens the era of modern philosophy. After the condemnation of Galileo (1633) Descartes had decided not to let his works be printed during his lifetime. Although he gave in 1637, at the request of his friends, by publishing an anthology of his research, he insisted on not sharing the total questioning that was the basis of it, except by leaving it the meaning of a singular and very personal approach. To this prudence we owe the exceptional fla