LA FORGE, L. de — Traité de l

Paris, M. Bobin & N. le Gras, 1666. 4to. W. small woodc. vignette on pr. title & nice engr. front. portr. [Signed bottom right 'J. Patigny'.]. Cont. full clf. spine. elab. gilt. (Overall some rubb. but a good firm binding.). (LVI, 453, III pp.). (Ownership inscr. in ink at top of printed title covered w. a (translucent) gray wash; a number of identical ownership signatures on paste downs and free endp. idem in a brown wash; a few pp. a vague watersp. in lower margin; idem more pronounced from pp. 400 to end in upper righthand corner.) First French edition. A good copy. Eloy II, 254: Thijssen-Schoute, 146-150, paragraph 51: Laforge was an admirer of Descartes and wrote extensive commentaries to go with Clerselier's 1664 edition of Descartes' 'Traité de l'homme'. Laforge was a medical doctor from Saumur and with de Cordemoy, considered to be the founder of the occasionalist School that denied a direct influence of the body on the soul and vica versa.: Comp. Brunet vol. III, p. 764: The Latin edition 'Tractatus de mente humana...'was published in the same year, also in Paris. The 'Traité de l'esprit' was much noted in Holland and repinted in Amsterdam [s.a]. In 1669 a Latin translation was published by Daniel Elzevier (by an unknown translator) which in turn was reprinted in Bremen in 1673 with annotations and an index by Johannes Flenderus.: Comp. Brazier, p. 22: