«Merge Record #»«Title» - Schulz-Falster Rare Books

[xvi], 331, [1] blank, woodcut device on title and numerous woodcut
illustrations in the text; a fine copy in full contemporary vellum, with
overlapping edges, manuscript title to spine.
First edition of the Principia and first Latin edition (translated by Etienne de
Courcelle) of Descartes' Discours de la Méthode (1637), which had been revised by
Descartes. Although issued independently, these two works are often found bound
together. Descartes was the first of modern philosophers and one of the first modern
scientists; in both branches of learning he was immensely important.
I. The Principia is one of the most influential books in the history of science,
presenting Descartes' system of physics and cosmologies, and the 'principles of his
philosophy in four parts: [1] metaphysical and cognitive principles; [2] the principles
of nature (laws of motion, etc); [3] the structure of the universe (celestial physics); (4)
an explanation of physical phenomena such as fermentation, magnetism etc.' (T.
Verbeek in Dictionary of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Dutch Philosophers, I,
(p. 254-260).
II. The Discours de la Méthode is here in the Latin translation, by which it reached its
greatest circulation, and the first to contain the famous dictum 'cogito, ergo sum'. The
Discours is Descartes' fundamental work in philosophy and on the method of
science. 'Descartes's purpose is to find the simple indestructible proposition which
gives to the universe and thought their order and system. Three points are made: the
truth of thought, when thought is true to itself (thus 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 inquiries of Locke, Leibniz and Newton; from them
stem all modern scientific and philosophic thought' (PMM 129).
I. Guibert p. 118; Norman 22; Willems 1008; Ashworth 1; II. Guibert p. 104; Norman
623; Willems 1008; PMM 129.
With the Arms of the Altieri Family
20.
DORIA, Luigi Romano. Elementi della Coltivazione de' Grani ad uso
dell'Agro Romano, Dedicati alla Santità di Nostro Signore Papa Pio
Sesto… In Roma, pel Salomoni, 1777. £ 2950
8vo, pp. xvi (imprimatur leaf misbound), 236, five engraved plates (three
folding) bound at the end; title printed in red and blue, with portrait
medallion of Pope Pius VI and a medallion showing an overflowing
grain vat surrounded by the words 'spes publica'; bound in
contemporary full tan calf, spine gilt in six compartments, gilt-lettered
spine label, sides gold-tooled with outer roll border, corner ornaments
built up from individual tools including leafy sprays, small stars,
blossoms and flower tools; a.e.g., Italian pattern paper endpapers,