Discours de la Méthode
The first edition preserved in its contemporary binding with a crowned cipher, very rare in that condition.
In-4 of 78 pp., (1) f., 413 pp. and (17) ff.
Granite brown calf, original spine preserved and reapplied, decorated edges, inner roll, red edges, marginal stains. Binding with crowned monogram of the period, made around the year 1650.
199 x 147 mm.
Descartes, René. Discourse on the Method for Rightly Directing One’s Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences. Plus Optics, Meteorology, and Geometry, which are essays of this method.
Leiden, Ian Maire, 1637.
Precious, rare, and highly sought-after first original edition of Descartes’s masterpiece.
Tchemerzine, II. 776; Guibert, 1; Horblit, 24; Dibner, Heralds of Science, 81; Norman Library, 621; PMM, 129; En français dans le texte, 90.
After Galileo’s condemnation in 1633, Descartes resolved not to have any of his works printed during his lifetime. From Holland, where he was drawn by his desire for solitude and isolation, the philosopher nevertheless continued to correspond with his close friends. It was at their urging that he relented, publishing in 1637 an anthology of his research, to which he gave the stamp of a singularly original and deeply personal approach.
Discourse on the Method marks a turning point in the progress of Western thought in the 17th century.
The Discourse is followed by three original scientific treatises: Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology, all abundantly illustrated with woodcut diagrams.
First edition of a fundamental work for both philosophy and scientific methodology.
Descartes’s first and most celebrated publication is the basis for his far-reaching influence as a philosopher and scientist. He makes three essential points in the Discourse: “the truth of thought, when thought is true to itself (cogito, ergo sum), the inevitable elevation of its partial state in our finite consciousness to its full state in the infinite existence of God and the ultimate reduction of the material universe to extension and local movement. From these central propositions in logic, metaphysics and physics came the subsequent enquiries of Locke, Leibniz and Newton; from them stem all modern scientific and philosophic thought” (PMM).
Like most important scientific books, the Discourse on the Method has seen its price rise sharply over the past several decades in the international market.
The ideal condition for this market is, of course, a contemporary binding.
Two copies in period vellum, with no significant provenance, have appeared on the market in recent years: the first sold for €180,000 twelve years ago, “Beguin copy described with ‘wormholes restored at the margins of several dozen leaves and a few spots’; Paris, 2006.” The second €247,000, “copy sold by Christie’s London on 2 June 2004, lot no. 54, fourteen years ago, described as ‘a little light browning, a few spot’,”
Neither of these copies bore a contemporary binding with a crowned cypher of the time.
Rare copy of the original 1637 edition of the Discourse on the Method, preserved in its contemporary speckled calf binding, bearing on the spine the interlaced and crowned cypher of a notable personage of the period, an exceptional condition for this major text.
