DESCARTES, René (1596-1650)

Passiones animae ... Gallice ab ipso conscriptae, nunc autem in exterorum gratiam Latina civitate donatae

Amsterdam: Ludovic Elzevier, 1650.
12mo: *--2*12 3*4 A--K12 L8, 156 leaves, pp [56] 242 [14] (last page blank), woodcut device on title. Leaf size and condition: 129 x 70mm. Binding: Contemporary sheep, gilt spine with raised bands. Minor worming to top and bottom of spine, corners worn. Provenance and annotation: Old signature on title inked out. References: Guibert pp. 156-7; Willems 1105; Tchemerzine II, p. 794, a; Krivatsy 3136; Wellcome II p. 453.
First Latin edition, a translation by Henri des Marets of Les passions de l'ame (Paris, 1649). An English translation was published in the same year. Elzevier also printed a quarto edition in the same year, issued as part of the Opera philosophica. Editio secunda.
§ Descartes' influential mechanistic account of the interaction of mind and body. Descartes believed the soul to be a definite entity, giving rise to thoughts, feelings and acts of volition. He was one of the first to regard the brain as an organ integrating the functions of mind and body, perhaps his most significant legacy to physiology. Written for Queen Christina of Sweden this was Descartes' last work, but the first of his physiological treatises to be published. Literature: See Garrison--Morton 4965, and Heirs of Hippocrates 467, citing the original French edition.

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