PREFACE

The present volume contains:
1. The Discourse on Method and the Essays¹, based on the original edition published in 1637 at Leiden by Jan Maire. It was released without the author's name in a quarto|A book size where each sheet of paper is folded twice to create four leaves, or eight pages. format, with two sets of page numbers: 3–78 for the Discourse placed at the beginning, and 1–418 for the Essays, followed by 31 unnumbered pages containing the Tables of Contents;
2. The Latin version of this work, titled Samples of Philosophy original: Specimina Philosophiæ. This version was produced by Etienne de Courcelles, a Frenchman living in Amsterdam as a Protestant minister, and was published in Amsterdam by Louis Elzevier in 1644, at the same time as Descartes' Principles of Philosophy original: Principia Philosophiæ. In this edition, the two works are usually joined together in a single quarto volume, with the Samples at the front, consisting of 16 unnumbered pages (title and indices|The plural of index; lists of subjects or names mentioned in the book.) followed by 331 numbered pages. The translator's name does not appear; instead, it features the name of Descartes, who attests (see page 539 below) that he reviewed and corrected the text, acknowledging it as a second edition, at least in terms of its meaning.
Etienne de Courcelles had left out the last of the three Essays, namely the Geometry. A Latin version of this also appeared during Descartes' own lifetime: GEOMETRY, published in French by René Descartes in the year 1637; now, however, with notes by Florimond de Beaune, Royal Councilor at the Court of Blois original: "GEOMETRIA, à Renato Des Cartes anno 1637 Gallicè edita ; nunc autem cum notis Florimondi de Beaune in Curia Blesensi Consiliarii Regii"

1. See below for the full title on the phototype|An early method of printing images using a light-sensitive chemical process. reproduction of the original edition's frontispiece.