[Descartes] Les principes de la philosophie

Escrits en Latin, par René Descartes. Et traduits en François par un de ses Amis. Reveus, & corrigez, en cette derniere Edition. Paris, M. Bobin & N. le Gras, 1668, (32 foreword), (24 table), 477, (2) p., with 1 folding, engraved plate and numerous (full-page) woodcut illustrations in the text, contemporary leather, 4to.

Bookblock waterstained through and through, mainly at the beginning and end; leaf Lll iij lacks a large part of the blank lower corner (probably already during printing); gathering Ooo with small burn hole in blank margin. Binding worn and stained. With ownership annotation of the Benedictine order St. Mauri, dated 1671 on the title page. Rare, early French edition of this highly influential work by Descartes, in the translation by Abbé Picot, published earlier in 1647. The first edition was published in Amsterdam, 1644, in Latin. Of our French edition, no copies are found in Picarta. In 1657 Glazemaker translated the work into Dutch with the title Principia philosophiae: Of beginselen der wijsbegeerte. Descartes wanted to offer an alternative for the Aristotelian and scholastic philosophy taught in universities at the time. The work consists of four parts: Of the Principles of Human Knowledge; Of the Principles of Material Things; Of the Visible World; Of the Earth. See for more information on this famous book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_Philosophy.