[ARNAULD (Antoine) & NICOLE (Pierre)]. La Logique ou L'Art d - Lot 484

Lot 484
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300 - 400 EUR
[ARNAULD (Antoine) & NICOLE (Pierre)]. La Logique ou L'Art d - Lot 484
[ARNAULD (Antoine) & NICOLE (Pierre)]. La Logique ou L'Art de penser ; containing, in addition to the common rules, several new observations which are suitable for forming the judgment. Paris, Charles Savreux, 1662. In-12 of 473, [7] pp. (including privilege and errata). Marbled calf, spine ribbed and decorated, triplet gilt filet framing the covers (contemporary binding but spine redone in the style of the 17th c.). Rare first edition of the Logique de Port-Royal, a masterpiece of Jansenist thought elaborated in the Petites Écoles de Port-Royal by Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole. A sort of abbreviated manual of logic intended for the young Duke of Chevreuse, allowing non-specialists "to learn in four or five days all that is useful in logic", it represents, moreover, a synthesis of the main currents of thought of the 17th century, borrowing many terms from mathematics and discarding the old theories of syllogistic logic and the indigestible compilations inherited from scholasticism in favour of more open and innovative methods of reasoning already adopted by Descartes. The authors justify the printed publication of a text intended for private use by the fact that several erroneous handwritten copies had already circulated without their agreement, and it seemed necessary to them to publish a correct and complete final version with several additions, including the Discourse on the Purpose of this Logic. If the work met with considerable success (five different editions in the first twenty years) to the point of becoming an essential textbook for every young Frenchman up to the 20th century, the privilege of this first edition is granted to a certain Monsieur Le Bon, pseudonym of the two Jansenists who were already worried and sued on several occasions for their controversial ideas. Thin strip of paper torn and missing at the top of the title (about 1 cm). Rare and sought-after. (Brunet III, 1145; Cioranescu 17th 8112 & 51257.)
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