DESCARTES, René - Les passions de l'âme - 1650

The Passions of the Soul by René Descartes: Amsterdam, at Louis Elzevier’s, 1650. In -18° [XLVIII]+272+[XIV]pp. Rare second edition in its original period binding in full vellum, called “à la hollandaise,” stained. The spine flat with a direct manuscript titling added, which one can guess rather than read. Ex-libris on the free endpaper “Tremouroux.” The last work of René Descartes before his death (this second edition was published the same year); it is his most important work after the famous Discours de la méthode and it is the only one that touches on aspects of moral life and its problems. A subject he had avoided until then. It would be a consequence of his lively correspondence with the Palatine Princess Madame Elisabeth: “The senses show me that the soul moves the body, but they do not teach me, nor do the understanding and the imagination, the manner in which it does so; and for that I think there are properties of the soul that are unknown to us, which perhaps may overturn what your ‘Méditations métaphysiques’ have persuaded me by such good reasons of the extension of the soul” (Lettres of July 1, 1643). This treatise is divided into three parts: the first analyzes the relations between the soul and the body. The second examines the passions by studying them from within, giving us a definition for each of them. And the third analyzes the different passions and classifies them into six categories of “primitive passions.” Beautiful, rare, and sought-after copy.