Curabelle (Jacques) Examen des oeuvres de Sr.... Lot n° 46

Curabelle (Jacques) Examen des oeuvres de Sr. Desargues, first edition, 2 parts in 1 including the rare supplement, engraved title and illustrations, embossed stamps to first few ff., occasional light marginal staining or toning not affecting text, bookplate to pastedown, endpapers browned with some offsetting, hinges cracked, 18th century vellum-backed blue boards, spine rubbed and cracked with portions of loss showing calf underneath, boards a little discoloured and marked, 4to, Paris, M. & I. Henault, 1644. ⁂ Very scarce with rare supplement of this polemic against Girard Desargues (1591-1661), one of the greatest projective geometers of his generation. In the process of attacking Desargues, he includes literal extracts from two of his lost works on perspective and gnomonics - the first work on projective geometry of which only one copy survives. It was also the first printed reference to La Pasqualle, the mystic hexagram, published in 1640 by the sixteen year-old Pascal in a broadside of which only 2 copies are extant.