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René Descartes – Specimina philosophiae … Passiones Animae, 1664

Specimina philosophiae: Seu dissertatio de methodo rectè regendae rationis, & veritatis in scientiis investigandae: Dioptrice, et Meteora, ex Gallico translata, & ab auctore perlecta, variisque in locis emendata. Ultima Editio cum optima collata, diligenter recognita, & mendis expurgata. Amsterdam: Elzevier, 1664 [bound with] Passiones Animae. Amsterdam: Elzevier, 1664.

2 works in one volume, 4to, [xvi], 248, [xxiv], 92, [4] pp., numerous woodcut figures, contemporary double gilt-panelled calf, edges very worn, rebacked preserving most of original spine (rubbed and without label), front pastedown with armorial bookplate of the antiquary and astronomer John Lee and his inscription (see below), also a German bookseller’s stamp, old marginal annotations in Latin on 16 pages of the first work (two different hands, red and black ink), uniform light browning and occasional spots, an interesting copy.

Fifth edition of Specimina philosophiae (Guibert p. 107) with the fifth Latin edition of Les passions de l’ame (Guibert p. 163), both published in the same year by Elzevier.

Provenance: John Lee (formerly Fiott),1783-1866, became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1828; he was also a founder member of the Royal Astronomical Society and was its president between 1861 and 1863. His inscription in this volume reads: ‘J. Lee. Doctors Commons, repaired February 1836, no. 7/98, purchased at the sale of the Library of Mr Thomas Taylor, no. 275 in 1836’.

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