The Cartesian World, Illustrated
An Entire Body of Philosophy, According to the Principles Of the Famous Renate Des Cartes In Three Books: I. The Institution ... II. The History of Nature ... III. A Dissertation of the Want of Sense and Knowledge in Brute Animals ... Written Originally in Latin by the Learned Anthony Le Grand, No w carefully translated from the last Corrections, Alterations, and large Additions of the Author, never yet Published.
London: printed by Samuel Roycroft, and sold by the undertaker Richard Blome, dwelling in New Weld-street, at the Green Pales, near Clare-Market: and at these booksellers following; Mr. Horn and Mr. Southby by the Royal Exchange; Mr. Chiswell, Mr. Clavell and Mr. Brome, i S. Pauls Church-yard; Mr. Tonson, in Fleetstreet; Mr. Saunders, in the New Exchange; Mr. Gilliflower, in Westminster-Hall; and Mr. Richards, at the Bible, the corner of Essex-Street, against S. Clements Church, 1694.
Price: $4,500.00
About the item
First edition (with imprint as above). With 101 engraved plates by John Kip & Michael van der Gucht after G.Freman, &c, one folding (Including 3 Frontispieces, 3 Scientific and 5 Heraldic plates with the arms of 113 Benefactors). [30], 1-403, [1], 1-92, 97-263, [1] pp. (Complete). 1 vols. Folio. The Cartesian World, Illustrated. 20th-century half calf and cloth, red leather spine label. Upper joint cracked, head and foot of spine slightly chipped, but apart from a very small dampstain in the gutter margin affecting a few preliminary leaves, this a fine, clean, copy. Wing L950.
Item #238836
First edition of an important Cartesian work, magnificently illustrated with full-page plates by Kep and van der Fucht. "Antoine Le Grand's most substantial work, An Entire Body of Philosophy According to the Principles Of the Famous Renate des Cartes (1694), is a Cartesian tract from beginning to end. It is based on a Latin text that underwent four editions before being translated into English by Richard Blome, and it includes corrections, alterations and additions by Le Grand himself. This work, as the title reveals, consists of three books. The first book, The Institution, is intended as a treatment of the general nature of things according to Descartes's principles; book two, The History of Nature, illustrates, by means of a great variety of reported experiments and examples, the operation of these first principles in nature. In this book, Le Grand applied the general Cartesian principles to his study of particular bodies and their qualities, showing how such principles can explain all natural phenomena. His extensive discussion includes bodies as various as the loadstone, plants, and insects. And finally, in his third book, A Dissertation of the Want of Sense and Knowledge in Brute Animals, he argued against the supposed link of life and sense from Plato onwards, and after offering a brief survey of various hypotheses on the nature of soul by Aristotle, Gassendi, Fabri, and Descartes, he adopted Descartes's view. In the Preface, Le Grand wrote that, ' ... this whole work contains nothing else, but his [Descartes's] opinions, or what may clearly and distinctly be deduced from them.'" (Easton, Patricia, "Antoine Le Grand", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2006 edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) (URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2006/entries/legrand).
