Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

since the prospective author had travelled so far to petition their services,

that he had little choice but to accept his proposed terms. This bargaining

strategy failed, and Descartes went to another printer in the same town,

Jan Maire.Although the book was still in the process of being written

and edited, he described its contents to Mersenne with this ambitious,

tentative title:

The Project of a Universal Science that could raise our nature to its highest degree of

perfection. In addition, the Dioptrics, the Meteors, and the Geometry, in which the most

surprising matters, which the author could choose to illustrate the universal science that he

proposes, are explained in such a way that even those who have not studied will be able to

understand them. (i.)

The first sentence here refers to theDiscourse on Method, because he adds

immediately as a commentary on the rather prolix title: ‘In thisProjectI

reveal a part of my method, I try to demonstrate the existence of God and

of the soul separated from the body, and I add some other things which I

think will not be unwelcome for the reader.’ Descartes stayed constantly

in touch with Huygens during the next twelve months. He visited him

in The Hague on April,todiscuss the new book after dinner, and he

wrote frequently about Huygens’ attempts to find a lens grinder who

could produce a parabolic lens by constructing a machine similar to that

described in theDioptrics.ByJuly, the printer was promising

to have all the illustrations ready within three weeks and to begin printing

immediately. Frans van Schooten, the son of a professor of mathematics at

Leiden of the same name, had agreed to make the woodcuts. The printer so

treasured his expertise that he induced him to lodge in his house, partly to

hasten completion of the project and partly ‘for fear that he would escape’

(i.). The printing of theDioptricswas completed byOctober, but

since the engravings for theMeteorsand theGeometryhad not been done,

the projected publication date was deferred to Easter.Meantime,

Descartes spent his time ‘with nothing to do except to read, now and then,

apageproof full of mistakes’ (i.).

Apart from the practical difficulties involved in having the book printed,

Descartes encountered extra problems in getting the copyright protection

(called a ‘privilege’) that his publisher required. The Dutch ‘privilege’

was granted without difficulty onDecember,butit proved much

more difficult to get a similar privilege from Paris. Since the book was

written in French, it was especially important to have the royal privilege