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Descartes…L’Homme the Journey to

Print
 By Super Admin  Posted on July 11, 2011
(https://library.missouri.edu/news/author/ltsadmin)   (https://library.missouri.edu/news/special-
Posted in Resources and Services collections/descartes-lhomme)
(https://library.missouri.edu/news/category/resources-and-services)
Special Collections and Archives
(https://library.missouri.edu/news/category/special-collections)

(http://library.missouri.edu/scriptamanent/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2011/07/LHomme-Essay.jpg)

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French thinker of the empiricist thinker. Descartes was born in la
Haye, in Touraine. He was the son of a provincial governor, Joachim Descartes, and his wife Jeanne
Brochard.  After a short career of practicing law he went to fight under Maurice of Nassau, in the
rebellion against the Spanish. In 1619, he had a series of visions that compelled him to devote his
life to science. Shortly thereafter, he moved to the protestant Dutch republic where his teachings and
experiments would be more accepted. While there he corresponded and tutored a number of pupils
that followed and studied his Cartesian teachings and his traité des passions, the study of emotions.

 
(http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/blogs/specialcollections/?attachment_id=638)The copy in the
collection is bound in calf skin, a common binding of the 17th and 18th centuries. The speckling
technique used on it was created by sprinkling acid over the leather and then wiping it clean after a
period of time. This technique has created problems in some specimens in today’s world as the acid
continues to erode the boards. The printer of this text, Jacques Le Gras, was the original publisher.
Shortly afterward, the text was moved to a different printing house and released in a larger run from
the printers Charles Angot and Théodore Girard.

The book itself is best described in the Heirs of Hippocrates (1974) text, “This first French edition is
the original text as composed by Descartes and is edited by his good friend, Claude Clerselier
(1614-1684). This edition also contains the first printing of his treatise ‘De la formation du foetus,’
completed just before his death. The fine woodcuts in this edition were partly based on Descartes’
drawings from the manuscript and partly prepared by the co-editors, Louis de la Forge (1632-1666?)
and Gerard van Gutschoven (fl. 1660) … Descartes was prepared to publish this book in 1633 but
decided to withhold it when he learned of Galileo’s condemnation by the Church. As a result, the first
edition was not published until 1662 [in Latin], twelve years after Descartes’ death … It is sometimes
called the first book on physiology, and that could be argued, but there is no doubt that the Cartesian
philosophy exerted a tremendous effect on the evolution of medicine.”

(http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/blogs/specialcollections/?
attachment_id=642)Descartes decision to withhold this text from the
public may have spared him from the kind of persecution Galileo
endured upon the publication of his Dialogs, 1632. However,
Descartes did not escape allegations that his beliefs were atheistic
and pelagianistic, which is the idea that people, can avoid sin
without God’s grace. These accusations started in the 1640s when
the rector at the university at Utrecht began making these charges.
These denunciations regarding his atheistic thoughts become more
heated as scholars from Leiden, a university town, became
involved.  At one point in the summer of 1647, Descartes returned to
France for the second time in that decade, where he contemplated
staying to escape these charges. He did return to the Dutch
republic, but by the end of the decade he had traveled to Stockholm
to tutor Christina of Sweden. The arrangement for tutoring her was
extremely strenuous, she required sessions before dawn in the brisk
air of the Swedish winter. By February 1650, he had fallen ill and
ultimately died from pneumonia.

(http://library.missouri.edu/scriptamanent/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2011/07/LHomme-Descartes-
Eye.jpg)

(http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/blogs/specialcollections/?attachment_id=641)The journey to publish

L’homme was led by Claude Clerselier, a staunch Catholic, who came into the ownership of
Descartes’ papers via his brother-in-law, the French ambassador to Sweden. Clerselier edited this
text and considerable correspondence, which helped shape Descartes’ image in the following years.
The quality of the 1664 French edition made Clerselier the understood guardian of Descartes’ body
of manuscripts. The book itself is interesting because Descartes’ essay is the smallest portion of the
over four hundred page text. The accompanying essays, forwards and remarks make up the majority
of the pages. Clerselier’s remarks include, among other things, a reasoning of the illustrations
included, of which many were provided by Florentius Shuyl and Clerselier himself. One image of
particular interest was drawn by Descartes. Clerselier kept the original drawing, an eye held by
muscle, to prove it was Descartes work. However, there is a notable difference in the artistic styles
between the eye and some of the other pieces, particularly in their background detail.  The additional
contributions to the text include Louis de La Forge’s remarks that expand on the Descartes text and
attempt to clarify the conceptual leaps Descartes makes in L’Homme.

This exceptional text was purchased in the spring of 2010 by University of Missouri Ellis Library
Special Collections and Rare Books, through a donation by Mr. Richard Toft.

Bibliographic Information:

L’homme

A Paris: Chez Iacques Le Gras, au Palais, à l’entrée de la Gallerie des Prisonniers, MDCLXIV,
[1664]

QP29 .D44 1664 (http://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu/record=b8139255~S1)

TAGS: 17th century printing (https://library.missouri.edu/news/tag/17th-century-printing) calf skin binding

(https://library.missouri.edu/news/tag/calf-skin-binding) Claude Clerselier
(https://library.missouri.edu/news/tag/claude-clerselier) L'Homme
(https://library.missouri.edu/news/tag/lhomme) Louis de La Forge (https://library.missouri.edu/news/tag/louis-
de-la-forge) René Descartes (https://library.missouri.edu/news/tag/rene-descartes) Special Collections
(https://library.missouri.edu/news/tag/special-collections)

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