DESCARTES (René).

Lot 136
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Estimation :
2000 - 3000 EUR
DESCARTES (René).
Geometria... Amsterdam, Louis & Daniel Elzevir, 1659. 2 volumes in one volume in-4, granite basane, decorated spine, jagged edges (contemporary binding). Willems, n°1244. - Zeitlinger-Sotheran, no. 7259. Second Latin edition of Geometry, a capital text by Descartes which marks the invention of analytical geometry. It was published and commented by Frans van Schooten fils (c. 1615-1660), professor at the University of Leiden who was one of the first commentators on Descartes (1596-1650) and to whom we owe an edition of the works of François Viète in 1646. The annotations are by Florimond de Beaune. This edition was published ten years after the first one, also by Van Schooten. It is augmented by various treatises, most of them by Cartesian disciples of the Dutch school: essays by Johann Hudde on equations, a treatise by Van Heuraet devoted to the problem of the rectification of algebraic curves, the Principia matheseos universalis written by Erasmus Bertholin based on notes from Van Schooten's course, two writings by De Beaune on the theory of equations, and a treatise on conic sections by Jan de Witt entitled Elementa curvarum linearum. Portrait of Descartes engraved on copper on the back of the forgery, accompanied by a poem by Constantin Huygens. This second edition, much more than the first Latin, played an important role in the spread of the Cartesian method in mathematics and influenced mathematicians of the second half of the seventeenth century, particularly Newton and Leibniz. Copy with handwritten annotations from the seventeenth century. Small missing part on the upper cap, scratches on the second dish, small rodent marks on the edge of the first dish.
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