Author: DESCARTES, R.- SCHUYL, F.- DE HOMINE.- OPERA.-
Title: De homini figuris et latinate donatus a Florentio Schuyl. [Bound before:] II. IDEM, Opera Philosophica. Editio quarta.
Description: Lugduni Batavorum; Amsterdam, Apud F. Moyardum & Petrum Leffen; Elzevier, 1662. 1664 - 1670. 4to. 7 parts in 1 vol. W. in 'De homine' a woodcut vign. on title & 10 (4 fold., 1 w. superimposed flaps [being a repeat of textill. 'Fig. I') copperengr. pls., 33 engr. textills. & 23 woodcut textills. In the 'Opera' an engr. portr. ['Franciscus a Schooten pr. mat', dated 1644, second state] and numerous, often full page, woodcut textills. Contemp. full velum, w. some defects. (Upper hinge splitting; Lower hing broken, cover sl. loose from bookblock). [a4-d4, e2, A-P4, Q2]. (XXXVI, 121 [recte 123) I [Q2verso, 'Nota'] pp. (Mispaginations at 12 (numbered 14), 54, 55 (numbered 56, 57) & pp. 113 to the end.). The 'Opera': pp). (Occasional (vague to somewhat stronger) watersp. in upper and lower blank margin; Some occasional light browning; numerous manuscript annotations; Front free endp. w. small black owner's stamp [not identified]; numerous owner's signatures of various students; Copy once belonging to the Duisburg student Peter Bock who acquired the book in 1676, after him it stays in his family.). Ad 1: One of two variants of the first edition (the engr. vignette on the printed title depicts an angel w. Lyre under a tree).: DSB vol. IV, pp. 51 - 65: Hirsch vol. II, pp. 234 - 235: Rotschuh, pp. 37 - 38, idem 'Entwicklungsgeschichte'1072, 1457, 1564: Boring, pp. 160 - 165: Krivatsy 3120: Wellcome vol. II, 453: : Eales, Manchester, I, 563: Van Otegem, A bibliography of the works of Descartes (1637 - 1704) [Thesis, 2002], vol. II, CH. 9, pp. 485 - 536, 'In 1662 Florentius Schuyl published the first edition of De Homine in Latin, 2 years before Clerselier finished his in French. ... Schuyl used two of the copies that were mentioned by Descartes in 1646: that of van Surck and Pollot's copy. He compared the two texts and made a Latin translation. His edition shows the 'Traité de l'homme'as it was in 1642.': : Guibert, 197,2: Tchemerzine IV, 308: Norman Coll. 627 (variant): 'The first European textbook of physiology.'G&M 574: 'Descartes considered the human body a material machine, directed by a rational soul located in the pineal body. This book was the first attempt to cover the whole field of "animal physiology". The work is really a physiological appendix to his Discours on method, 1637. The first edition was translated from the French. The French text first appeared in 1664. ...': Thijssen - Schouten, p. 188, 261 - 262: paragraph 84 on Schuyl's important preface to 'De Homine' & on his translation into Latin of the (unpublished) French version, see paragraph 126: L. Cohen-Rosenfeld, 'From beast machine to man machine, ilc, see pp. 248 - 49: [On Schuyl's role] 'Florens Schuyl's role in diffusing knowledge of and justification for Descartes'theory of the beast-machine was more important than has been generally realized. His was the first lengthy treatment accorded the subject by any Cartesian ...His most important contribution, however, was his emphasis on the connection between animal mechanism and the general principle of mechanistic physiology.': Schuyl is to be much praised for his work on Descartes 'De homine' and through its translation the advancement of Cartesianism was given a great boost. Schuyl only had one illustration from Descartes himself and designed the rest himself. These illustrations are totally different from the ones made for the French Clerselier edition of 1664, for which the figures were made by L. de la Forge and G. van Gutschoven.: This rare edition is especially sought after for its illustrations in copper, among which we find the plate of the heart, in 2 variants, one without the flaps and the corrected /added one with superimposed flaps, which Osler [item 931] calls 'a dissected copy of fig. 1': Stirling, 'In 'de homine' ... he developed his celebrated theory of man as an automaton ... He accepted Harvey's view of the circulation of the blood, but erroneously ascribed its cause to the heat generated in the heart.': Grolier, 100 books famous in medicine, item 31: 'De homine had a far reaching and profound impact as an explanatory system. It helped establish a program for future physiological research, and influential figures such as Thomas Bartholin, Nicholas Steno, Robert Hooke, Jan Swammerdam and Giovanni Borelli came under its sway. 'De Homine' remains important as a model, a fruitful and productive hypothesis.': Ad 2.) Osler 929: With the general title and the engraved portrait by Schooten. The 'Opera' consisiting of: 'Meditationes de prima philosophia' [Amst, Dan. Elzevier, 1670], 'Appendix' [Ibid., id, id] to the same, 'Epistola' [No date], 'Principia Philosophiae' [Ibid., id., 1664], 'Specimina Philosophiae' [Ibid., id., id], 'Passiones Animae' [Ibid., Lud. & Dan. Elzevier, 1664]& at the end a first edition 1662 of 'De Homine' [Leyden, Moyardum & Leffen]: Van Otegem, vol. II, CH. 14, pp. 692 -694:

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