DESCARTES, RENE. Principia philosophiae. Woodcut text illustrations. [24], 310 pages; lacks final blank. 4to, later .5 vellum, recased, endpapers renewed; margins trimmed close not affecting text, smudge across pages 116-17, ink blot on Y4, with tear

DESCARTES, RENE. Principia philosophiae. Woodcut text illustrations. [24], 310 pages; lacks final blank. 4to, later .5 vellum, recased, endpapers renewed; margins trimmed close not affecting text, smudge across pages 116-17, ink blot on Y4, with tear in blank outer margin,title soiled, with signature of Thomas Brown dated 28 August 1779, and his signed inscription on b4r: "The Four following Parts of the Principles of Philosophy by Des-Cartes were translated by me into English and reduced to writing in Seventeen little Books at Sheffieldin the Year 1779. Thos. Brown." Amsterdam: Lodovicus Elzevier, 1644 E4000-6000 FIRST EDITION. "Descartes's system of physics, in which hedeveloped his theory of vortices. The work was based on Descartes's then-unpublished work Le Monde, which treated the creation and function of the universe in completely mechanistic terms; Descartes suppressed this work after the condemnation of Galileo in 1633, and was careful in the Principia to qualify his mechanistic Copernican views with the idea that all motion is relative. His vortical theory allowed him to argue that since the earth is at rest in its surrounding medium it remains unmoved, although it, together with itsentire vortex, necessarily circles the sun. Although Descartes's system was ultimately superseded by that of Newton, it represents the first truly comprehensive look at the universe in a fundamentally new mechanistic, and non-teleological way"-Norman 622. Guibert, page 118 Willems 1008.