PREFACE

we would scrupulously follow the editions published during the author's lifetime, the texts of which he himself corrected while they were being printed.

We have in no way strayed from this principle; on the contrary, we consider it increasingly important to restore to Descartes’ writings the orthographic character original: "physionomie orthographique"; referring to the specific spelling and visual appearance of the words as they were written and printed in the 17th century. that characterized them.

In particular, the eccentricities original: "singularités" that the Discourse on the Method displayed in this regard could not fail to influence readers, especially those for whom it became a bedside book. This influence, for which it would be easy to provide examples, is revealed—it is true—much more in the handwritten manuscripts original: "autographes" of the period than in printed works. But it persisted for a long time and is by no means historically negligible, which would be sufficient reason for a faithful reproduction of the 1637 volume.

However, to proceed in this matter "as in diplomatic transcription" A "diplomatic" edition is one that transcribes the source exactly as it appears, including all errors and quirks, without editorial intervention. would have been, in Descartes' case, a betrayal all the more blatant because he himself pointed out, regarding the errata|A list of printing errors to be corrected. (see below, p. 514, note), that many mistakes remained to be corrected and that the "distinctions" original: "distinctions"; an archaic term for punctuation marks. often left much to be desired. Jan Maire's edition The original 1637 edition published in Leiden. is, moreover, indisputably very flawed from a typographical standpoint: in particular, the spelling of the same word and, above all, the accentuation are remarkably inconsistent.

The excuse offered by Descartes—namely, that the typesetter did not understand a word of French—means, however, only that the author did not find in Leiden A city in the Netherlands where Descartes lived and published. the valuable assistance usually provided by printing overseers|original: "protes"; the foremen of a printing shop who supervised production. and final proofreaders|original: "tierceurs"; specialist workers who performed the third and final check of the printing proofs. to ensure consistent spelling and to remove grammatical errors; for the more the typesetter was ignorant of French, the more he must have tried to follow the manuscript copy faithfully. It would therefore be necessary to be able to distinguish between genuine printing errors and mistakes in the original manuscript.

Now, while in many cases this distinction is easy to make,