PASCAL (Blaise). - Lot 54

PASCAL (Blaise). Pensées de M. Pascal Sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets, Qui ont est trouvé après sa mort parmy ses papiers. Paris : Guillaume Desprez, 1670 - In-12, 152 x 87 : (41 ff.), 365 pp., (10 ff.). Red morocco, double cold fillet framing the boards, spine ribbed with cold fillets, interior gilt lace, gilt edges (Capé). Pascal le cœur et la raison, BNF, 2017, pp. 187-188. - Vérène de Diesbach-Soultrait, Six siècles de littérature française. XVIIe siècle. Deuxième partie, 2010, no. 224. - Maire, IV, pp. 101-103. Original edition dated 1670. The editorial adventure of this text began in 1669; it has been perfectly summarized by Jean-Marc Chatelain: "The book was first printed in the summer of 1669, under a title page bearing this date and the address of the bookseller Guillaume Desprez, without the cahier des approbations ecclésiastiques (...) nor the final cahiers de table des matières. As it stood, it was only distributed to a small number of people, notably the bishops whose approval was sought. This restricted distribution was in a way a broadening of the "committee": the opinions gathered, together with the continued work of the editors, enabled some final modifications to be made with a view to the definitive publication. These were introduced by means of cartons (...). In this final stage, the entire table of contents and the book of ecclesiastical approvals were printed, followed by the extract from the royal privilege that Florin Périer had taken care to obtain in December 1666 to avoid any risk of surreptitious publication. Once complete, the Port-Royal edition appeared in the first days of 1670, under a title page bearing this date and with a "achevé d'imprimer" dated January 2, 1670" (Jean-Marc Chatelain, in: Pascal le cœur et la raison, BNF, 2017, p. 152). This copy is indeed part of this edition, hardbound, with the achevé d'imprimer dated January 2, 1670, the errata on the verso of the privilege, the headband on page 1 depicting the chapel of the Collège des Quatre-Nations in Paris under construction, etc. Beautiful copy bound by Charles-François Capé, very well preserved.