The Characters of the Passions.

La Chambre (Marin Cureau de)

The Characters of the Passions.

Written in French... Translated into English.

Description: title printed in red and black, title-page browned and slightly frayed in the fore-margin, some darkening around the edges and some damp-staining at the beginning, a single worm hole in the inner margin of the first 20 leaves, negligibly affecting text, without the initial blank, pp. [xxiv], 339, [2, 'The Stationer to the Reader' usually bound with the preliminaries], 8vo, contemporary sheep, blind double fillet borders on sides, a double rule in blind towards the spine, rebacked preserving most of the original spine and red lettering piece, sound

Publication Details: Printed by Tho. Newcomb, for John Holden, 1650

Notes: First edition in English, an anonymous translation of the first volume of La Chambre's Les charactères des passions, 1640. The work in French eventually extended to 5 volumes, the last published in 1662. As the Biographie Universelle has it: 'cet ouvrage est encore estimé et regardé comme un de nos bons livres de physiologie.' The passions considered here are Love (roughly half the volume), Joy, Laughter, Desire, and Hope. The Stationer, i.e. John Holden, dedicates the volume to the Ladies, 'acknowledging them the onely Admirals of these Seas [i.e. the Passions]; to whom, whether they come ...moreFirst edition in English, an anonymous translation of the first volume of La Chambre's Les charactères des passions, 1640. The work in French eventually extended to 5 volumes, the last published in 1662. As the Biographie Universelle has it: 'cet ouvrage est encore estimé et regardé comme un de nos bons livres de physiologie.' The passions considered here are Love (roughly half the volume), Joy, Laughter, Desire, and Hope. The Stationer, i.e. John Holden, dedicates the volume to the Ladies, 'acknowledging them the onely Admirals of these Seas [i.e. the Passions]; to whom, whether they come safe, or are shipwrack'd, they of right belong, since none do more powerfully cause, or more sensibly suffer them...'La Chambre emerged from somewhat obscure origins to become, in 1635, the holder of a new office, that of physician to the staff of the Chancellery, and in later life he was one of the founder members of the Académie des Sciences. (see D. J. Sturdy, Science and Social Status: The Members of the 'Académie Des Sciences', 1995, pp. 89-95).Scarce: ESTC locates 9 copies in the UK, 3 of them in Oxford, and not the BL; 6 copies in the US. HIDE

Bibliography: (ESTC R226125)

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Price: £2,000

Subject: Philosophy

Published Date: 1650

Stock Number: 51883

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