Pensées

12mo of CXX and 453 pp., (3) pp.

Red morocco, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, arms stamped in gilt and inlaid with green morocco at the center, spine with raised bands decorated with gilt fleurons and fillets, gilt fillet on the edges, blue endpapers, inner gilt roll, gilt edges. Contemporary binding.

166 x 98 mm.

Pascal, Blaise. Thoughts of Mr. Pascal on religion, & on some other subjects. New edition Enlarged with several Thoughts, his Life, & some Discourses.

Paris, Guillaume Desprez and Guillaume Cavelier, 1748.              

Precious and rare edition of Pascal's Pensées, from the Age of Enlightenment, unknown to Albert Maireand to Brunet.

It features The Life of Pascal written by Madame Périer his sister, the text of the Pensées, the Discourse on the Thoughts of Pascal, the Discourse on the evidences of the Books of Moses, and the Discourse in which it is shown that there are demonstrations of another kind, just as certain as those in geometry.

“The “Pensées” hold a unique place among apologetic works because of their philosophical and religious depth, and the power of their style. Their interest also lies in the exceptional form in which they have come down to us. Left unfinished, they consist of about a thousand fragments, of which the posthumous edition of 1669 kept only the most accessible, subjecting them to alterations and arranging them in an arbitrary order. The original papers, mostly autograph, have nonetheless been preserved, pasted in disorder in an album: a manuscript universally famous, now at the Bibliothèque Nationale. This document has since 1842 served as the source for modern editions that aim to be accurate and complete” (Jean Mesnard, En français dans le texte, no. 96).

In the eighteenth century, Pascal’s Pensées would fuel numerous studies, critiques, and philosophical disputes.

Voltaire, in his Remarks on the Thoughts of Pascal, responds to the thinker.

“The great anti-Pascalian is Voltaire, from his first attack on Pascal in the Mercure de France in September 1732, to his notes on the edition of the Pensées published by Condorcet in 1778” (P. Lonning).

Voltaire opposed Pascal’s “fanatical enthusiasm” and, against the obscurity of faith, defended the “lights” of philosophy.

“Despite this refutation of Pascal, how many Pascalian echoes can still be heard in certain judgments on the human condition! Mr. Pomeau has shown this about Voltaire. Montesquieu, in his Pensées, not only finds the same themes but sometimes even the Pascalian tone.” (R. Mauzi).

Precious and beautiful copy, preserved in its contemporary armorial morocco binding.