Descartes: A Biography

end CUNYB/Clarke     December, :

Notes to Pages– 

.Much depends on which water had to be crossed. If the books travelled by canal,

they may have come from Leiden. However, if Helena was still living in Deventer,

they may just as easily have travelled by the Zuider Zee.

.See Descartes to Mersenne,September: ‘Fifteen days ago I decided to

send you the letters included with this one, but I left this town suddenly before I

had sealed them’ (iii.).

.Baillet (), ii..Francine died either on Septemberor on September,

depending on whether Baillet translated the old style dates that were used in

Amersfoort into the new calendar used in France. If she died on September,

‘on the third day of her illness’, it is not clear why Descartes would have set off

onhis journey three days before Francine got sick. If she died on September,

he would have returned to Leiden while the young child was dying. The three

days quoted by Baillet correspond to the normal progression of scarlet fever.

It may be that Descartes did travel from Leiden because of Francine’s illness

and death, and that Baillet was slightly confused about the precise date of her

death.

.Huygens to Descartes,October, refers to ‘ce malheur publique’ (i.). Cf.

Israel (),.

.Baillet (), ii..

.Ibid., ii.–.

.Helena died inand was buried in Egmond aan den Hoef. I am indebited to

Jeroen van de Ven for providing the detailed information about Helena Jans and

her relationship with Descartes.

.This correspondence first came to light when it was edited on behalf of the Buxton

family by Leon Roth and published in. Although I have consulted Roth (),

all the letters have been reprinted in the revised edition of Descartes’ works (edited

byAdam and Tannery). For the sake of simplicity, I give references to that edition.

.That he was in Utrecht in Marchis confirmed by a letter from Anna Maria

van Schurman to Rivet,March (OS?). See Bos (), liii.

.‘Compose’ here is intentionally ambiguous. Descartes had worked on many of

the issues that are discussed in the publishedMeteorsforsome years before its

publication, especially the application of the law of refraction to explaining the

rainbow. The explanation of parhelias began in.

.Huygens to Descartes,October(i.).

.‘Since the condemnation of Galileo, I have revised and completely finished the

treatise that I had begun earlier’ (i.).

.Roth (),, note; Descartes to Huygens,March(i.–); Descartes

to Mersenne, March(i.–).

.Despite the fact the Elzevier was much more famous, Jan Maire had a significant

number of international authors on his list, including John Selden, Francis Bacon,

Francis Gomar, and Claude Saumaise. For the status of Jan Maire and the printing

history of thebook, see Brown ().

.Descartes to Huygens,March(i.);June(i.);July

(i.).

.Descartes to Huygens,October(i.–).