DESCARTES (René) - Lot 437

DESCARTES (René) Geometria, à Renato Des Cartes anno 1637 Gallicè edita ; postea autem unà cum notis Florimond de Beaune, ... Gallicè conscriptis in Latinam linguam versa, & Commentariis illustrata. Opera atque studio Francisci à Schooten [Followed by] Principia matheseos universalis. Amstelaedami (Amsterdam), apud Mudovicum & Danielem Elzevirios, 1659. 2 volumes in-4: 8f. 520pp. / 9f. 420pp. 2f. Frontispiece portrait and numerous diagrams and geometrical figures in the text. Old ink annotations in margins. Old stiff vellum, handwritten title on spine. A fine copy. Third Latin edition of René Descartes' masterpiece. Following: Principia matheseos universalis. This text, often bound after the Geometry, is an introduction to Cartesian calculus. It contains Florimondo de Beaune's De Æquationum (1659); Johannis De Witt's Elementa curvarum linearum (1659) and Francisci de Schooten's Tractatus de concinnandis demonstrationibus geometricis. Provenance: Copy from the library of Alexis Jean Armand Mieulet de Lombrail (1828-1904), a native of Tarn-et-Garonne, a young aristocrat whose family came from the Garonne nobility. He attended a Catholic preparatory school in Versailles and embraced positivist ideas. He was a pupil of Auguste Comte.