‎Descartes (René)‎
‎Les principes de la philosophie, écrits en Latin et traduits en François par un de ses amis. ‎

‎Les principes de la philosophie, écrits en latin par René Descartes, et traduits en françois par un de ses amis, revues et corrigez en cette dernière édition -- BEL EXEMPLAIRE‎

‎P., Bobin & Nicolas Le Gras, 1668, un volume in 4 relié en plein veau, dos orné de fers dorés (reliure de l'époque), (habile restauration à un coin), (28), 477pp., (1pp.), (1), 1 PLANCHE hors texte représentant les corps en mouvement, nombreuses figures dans le texte‎

‎---- BEL EXEMPLAIRE --- Traduction (du latin en français) par l'Abbé PICOT ---- "The principia philosophia contains Descartes'famous vortex theory by which he tried to reconcile Copernican astronomy with biblical teaching. It also contains the first scientific theory of magnetism". "The most comprehensive of all Descartes'works. Dedicated to the Princess Elizabeth, its three treatises embrace the whole of his philosophy, with the exception of the moral. Descartes'design in this treatise was the elaboration of a general theory which would account for the creation and the structur of the world. At the outset he scorfully rejected the whole apparatus of qualitates occultae, employed so freely by the scholastics, and in its place he tried to substitute a rational explanation of the phenomena of nature grounded upon human intelligence and erected upon the mathematical model. In this way he indicated the only solid path ever pursued by physical science, namely, its reduction to the laws of mathematics... On account of its intelligible assuptions, the theory established by Descartes withstook for more than a century all efforts to dislodge it. Fundamentally it assumed all space to be filled with matter, and this, having been endowed in the beginning with motion, has in course of time fallen into a series of vortices in which the sun and the fixed stars, the heavens and the earth, planets and comets are carried. By thus comparing the motion of the celestial bodies with that of terrestrial bodies caught up and floating in whirpools of water, Descartes provided an analogy which at least had the merit of plausibility". (Scott p. 158). "In part I, Descartes sets out the basic principles of his investigation pursuing the methods developed in his Discourse on Method. Part II is devoted to the nature of the physical world and the means by which we may comprehend it. Fundamental to Descartes'physical theories was his conviction that all space was occupied, space was identified with matter, all matter was infinitely extensible and infinnitely divisible ; within the context of this theory a vacuum was impossible as was the existence of atoms. This made for a theory highly compatible with catholic doctrine... Also presented in Part II are Descartes' three laws of motion. Part III not only presents Descartes' conception of structure of the world, but reprensents the first serious attempt at a mechanical explanation of the solar system. The Vortex Theory boldly attempted to reduce the phenomena of the universe to a single mechanical principle...". (Bibliotheca mechanica 1st latin ed. pp. 91/92) ---- DSB IV ---- Des principes de la connaissance humaine - Des principes des choses matérielles - Du monde visible - De la terre**6373/arm3‎

‎Les principes de la Philosophie, ecrits en latin, par rené Descartes. Et traduits en Francois par un de ses Amis. 4 Parties. (Des principes de la connaissance humaine - Des principes des choses materielles - Du Mone visible - De la terre).‎

‎Paris, Henry Le Gras et Edme Pepingvé, 1651. 4to. Contemp. full calf with 5 raised bands, profusely gilt compartments. Covers slightly rubbed. A small nick to lower edge of backcover. Engraved title-page (and printed). (60),420,(1) pp. and 20 engraved plates. Pastedown inside frontcover a bit soiled. Front-free endpaper with some calculations in old hand. Old name in lower right corner of title-page partly erased. A small faint brownspot in upper margin of the first leaves. A few leaves with faint brownspots, otherwise fine and clean. The plates having a brownspot in upper left corners, but outside image.‎

‎Second French edition (translated from the first edition (Latin) of ""Principia philosophiae"", 1644 by L'Abbe Picot). Descartes here published his general system of epistemology and physics - including his Vortice-theory, the impossibility of a vacuum, etc. - with its Copernicanism mitigated by the idea that all motion is relative.In Descartes’s letter prefaced to this French translation of the Principles, he writes that two, and only two, conditions determined whether the first principles proposed could be accepted as true: ""First they must be so clear and evident that the mind of man cannot doubt their truth when it attentively applies itself to consider them"""" and secondly, everything else must be deducible from them. But he went on to admit,""It is really only God alone who has perfect wisdom, that is to say, who has a complete knowledge of the truth of all things."" Brunet II:611.‎

‎Les principes de la Philosophie Ecrits en Latin Par René Descartes Et traduits en François par un de ses Amis. ‎

‎ A Paris, Chez Henry et Nicolas Le Gras, D. DC. LIX (1659).Un volume in-4 ( 16,5 x 22 cm) de 8pp. d'Epistre, 22 pages de Préface lettre de l'Autheur à celuy qui a traduit le livre, 22 pages de Table, 1 ff. blanc et 477 pp. Reliure plein veau d'époque, dos à nerfs, caissons ornés,pièce de titre rouge. reliure très usée et endommagée, coiffes et coins abîmés, mors fendus en haut et en bas du dos, épidermures. Page de titre tachée, nombreuses rousseurs, "gribouillis" à l'encre sur la page de garde.État passable. Mais bien complet de toutes les gravures et planches in et hors texte dont certaines dépliantes. ‎