MEDITATIONS

The first edition of the Meditations was published in Latin by Michael Soly of Paris “at the Sign of the Phoenix” in 1641 cum Privilegio et Approbatione Doctorum. The Royal “privilege” was indeed given, but the “approbation” seems to have been of a most indefinite kind. The reason of the book being published in France and not in Holland, where Descartes was living in a charming country house at Endegeest near Leiden, was apparently his fear that the Dutch ministers might in some way lay hold of it. His friend, Pere Mersenne, took charge of its publication in Paris and wrote to him about any difficulties that occurred in the course of its progress through the press. The second edition was however published at Amsterdam in 1642 by Louis Elzevir, and this edition was accompanied by the now completed “Objections and Replies.”1 The edition from which the present translation is made is the second just mentioned, and is that adopted by MM. Adam and Tannery as the more correct, for reasons that they state in detail in the preface to their edition. The work was translated into French by the Duc de Luynes in 1642 and Descartes considered the translation so excellent that he had it published some years later. Clerselier, to complete matters, had the “Objections” also published in French with the “Replies,” and this, like the other, was subject to Descartes’ revision