Animadversiones in decimum librum Diogenis Laertii qui est de vita, moribus placitiisque Epicuri

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 spine and corners in a lighter color, spine with five raised bands framed in blind and 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and corners restored, li­brary shelfmark glued to pastedown of each volume – the first bearing the inscription “withdrawn”, 18th cen­tury English bindings.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 follows and consid­erably expands 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.