Pierre GASSENDI
Animadversiones in decimum librum Diogenis Laertii qui est de vita, moribus placitiisque Epicuri
apud Guillielmum Barbier, Typogr. Reg., Lugduni [Lyon] 1649, 20,4x29,8cm, 3 vol. [2 ff.]-751 p., [1 f.], p. 753-1179 ; [1 ff.], p. 1181-1768, CCLXII p., [37] p., [1 ff. errata], 3 tomes en deux volumes.
First edition of this seminal text by the philosopher and mathematician Pierre Gassendi - with his translation and commentary on the Epicurean
Kyriai Doxai, not included in the synthesis of his philosophy published three years after his death (
Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri).
Full calf with corners in a lighter color, spine with five raised bands framed in blind and in gilt at head and foot of spine, title and volume number stamped in gilt, boards numerously framed in blind and gilt, gilt arms of the “Society of Writers to the Signets” surmounted by the initials “G S MK” stamped in blind on each board. Upper spine-end and corners restored, library shelfmark glued to pastedown of each volume - the first bearing the inscription “WITHDRAWN”, 18th-century English bindings. Some foxing throughout.
A very rare and imposing study by Gassendi on his main influence, Epicurus, ranging from logic, ethics, physics, to astronomy and meteorology, based on Diogenes Laërtius' biography of the philosopher. Isaac Newton was greatly influenced by the Animadversiones for his new mechanical philosophy. It was the most voluminous study published during the author's lifetime, and the only one not to appear in his Opera Omnia.Animadversiones follow and considerably expand Gassendi's biography of Epicurus (1647) which was published without the author's knowledge. This study can be considered one of the founding works reintroducing Epicurean philosophy into Renaissance intellectual discourse: "In this context, the choice of publishing the translation of the Lives is particularly telling. Indeed, translation becomes a way of corroborating the new image of Epicurus provided by the unauthorized publication of his biography with textual and philological evidence, and, at the same time, to directly address his philosophy in general.”(Rodolfo Garau).
His atomic theory was applied to chemistry by Boyle and adopted by Newton, who discovered the
Animadversiones through Walter Charleton's Physiologia (1654). As Jean Salem notes, “The Animadversiones thus reveal different stages in Gassendi's thought, with some contradictions. This is also what makes them so interesting historically: they reveal Gassendi's thinking at work. This book is “purer”, much more rigorous and consistent with early atomism than the Syntagma. It shows Gassendi's extreme acuity and infinite ingenuity” (L'atomisme au XVIIIe siècle). Along with Hobbes, Gassendi is one of the fathers of “scientific” empiricism. Taking the latter's developments into account, Gassendi also constructs a neo-Epicurean juridistic theory, designed to combat the many prejudices that weighed on Epicurean thought, thus proving that seeking pleasure or peace of mind was in no way anti-political.
A handsome first edition copy of this cornerstone of Epicurean philology and an important presentation of Gassendi's philosophical system, considered "the most systematic attempt at ‘domesticating' ancient Epicureanism with regard to the Christian religion and early modern science" (Rodolfo Garau).
Partington, II, pp. 459-460.
USTC 6905669.
12 500 €
Réf : 87275
Order
Book