PREFACE

...translated into the Latin language, and illustrated with Commentaries, through the labor and study of Frans van Schooten of Leiden, Professor of Mathematics teaching in the Dutch language at the University of Leiden original: "in Latinam linguam versa, et Commentariis illustrata, opera atque studio Francisci à Schooten Leydensis, in Academia Lugduno-Batava Matheseos Professoris Belgicè docentis.". (Leiden. From the workshop of Jan Maire. 1649, in quarto|A book size where each sheet of paper is folded twice to create four leaves, or eight pages. ¹.) But this time, although he was on very good terms with Schooten—who should indeed be regarded entirely as his disciple in mathematics—Descartes insisted on leaving him all responsibility for this edition. He expresses himself clearly on this matter in a letter to Mersenne dated April 4, 1648 (Correspondence, vol. V, p. 145). It was therefore sufficient for us to point out in the notes the few discrepancies, generally justified, between Schooten's version and the French text; Schooten’s faithfulness is otherwise remarkable, and his Latin style is much clearer and more correct than Descartes seems to have hoped for.

Unfortunately, in this latter respect, the version by Etienne de Courcelles leaves much to be desired. Between the lines in which Descartes confirms its accuracy—which is far too literal and achieved, most often, through the use of strange gallicisms|Idioms or grammatical structures from the French language incorrectly applied to another language, in this case, Latin.—one can clearly read that while he accepts the meaning, as we have said, he does not take responsibility for the style. But, if he did not want to force himself to correct it and leave his mark upon it (which would have cost him more effort than redoing the entire translation himself), he nonetheless certainly made considerable changes: various oversights from the 1637 draft have disappeared; the presentation, in several places, has undergone significant reworking; and additions, of varying importance, are frequent ². All of this is easily recognizable; but the criteria that he—

1. In 1659, Schooten produced a second edition (Amsterdam, Louis and Daniel Elzevier), in which his commentaries are significantly expanded. Augmented by short works by himself as well as by Jan Hudde, Hendrick van Heuraet, Florimond de Beaune, and Johan de Witt, it constitutes, in two volumes, a true corpus|A collection of written texts, especially the entire works of a particular author or a body of writing on a specific subject. of Cartesian geometry at that date. It is this second edition that we have particularly utilized.
2. These additions, at least the most prominent ones, have been indicated in the Latin text within quotation marks.