DESCARTES René L’Homme, et un traité de la formation du foetus du mesme autheur. Avec les remarques de Louys de La Forge.

Guibert, p.198; Norman, 628; DSB, IV, pp. 51-65. Cf. Becker coll., 99.

First edition in French. It contains for the first time the chapter "De la formation du foetus". It was edited by "Clerselier qui en a rédigé l'Épitre. Louis de La Forge y a ajouté ses annotations" (Guibert).

Copy issued by Girard (the printing privilege was shared between Charles Angot, Jacques & Nicolas le Gras, andet Théodore Girard). 

"Published two years after Schuyl's Latin translation, this French edition of De hominis figuris was the first to contain Descartes's 'De la formation du foetus', an attempt to explain reproductive generation in mechanistic physiological terms" (Norman).

"The greater part of De l'Homme is given to a detailed examination of sensation, and of the physiology of vision in particular. According to Stephen Polyak, Descartes stated "for the first time, a clearly conceived and expressed idea of a topographical projection or representation of the retina on the brain" (Becker coll.)

"The impact of the Cartesian physiological program, once it was publicly known, was enormous. In two ways – philosophically and physiologically – Descartes transformed long-standing beliefs about animals and men… Physiologically Descartes's conceptions had an impact that in many ways was even more impressive than the philosophical influence, because it affected the actual course of contemporary science" (DSB).

Very good copy.

Provenance : old ownerschip inscription on enpapers crossed out.