Willem Blaeu in the context of "The Search for Truth by Natural Light"


A Latin translation of René Descartes’ *The Search for Truth by Natural Light*, titled *Inquisitio Veritatis per Lumen Naturale*, was published in 1683 as part of a musical compendium and later in 1701 as part of a collection of Descartes’ posthumous works, both times utilizing the printing services of the Blaviana printing house in Amsterdam.

⭐ In the context of *The Search for Truth by Natural Light*, Willem Blaeu’s printing house played a role in the dissemination of which version of Descartes’ work?


⭐ Core Definition: Willem Blaeu

Willem Janszoon Blaeu (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋɪləm ˈjɑnsoːm ˈblʌu]; 1571 – 21 October 1638), also abbreviated to Willem Jansz. Blaeu, was a Dutch cartographer, atlas maker, and publisher. Along with his son Johannes Blaeu, Willem is considered one of the notable figures of the Netherlandish or Dutch school of cartography during its golden age in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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HINT: The Blaviana printing house, owned by Willem Blaeu, published a Latin translation of *The Search for Truth by Natural Light* in 1683 as part of *Renati Des-Cartes Musicae compendium*.

👉 Willem Blaeu in the context of The Search for Truth by Natural Light

The Search for Truth by Natural Light (La recherche de la vérité par la lumière naturelle) is an unfinished philosophical dialogue by René Descartes “set in the courtly culture of the ‘honnête homme’ and ‘curiosité’.” It was written in French (presumably after the Meditations was completed) but that was lost around 1700 and remained lost until a partial copy was discovered in G.W. Leibniz's papers in Hanover in 1908 and published in the Adam-Tannery edition of Descartes's works and correspondence (vol. X, pp. 495-532). A Latin translation, Inquisitio Veritatis per Lumen Naturale, was published in 1683 as part of Renati Des-Cartes Musicae compendium (Blaviana printing house, Amsterdam) and again in 1701 as part of R. Des-Cartes Opuscula posthuma, physica et mathematica (Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios, Boom et Goethals, Amsterdam); it was also included in a Dutch translation of a collection of letters from Descartes published in 1684 by J.H. Glazemaker.

A definitive edition, containing the partial French text plus the fuller Dutch and Latin translations on facing pages was published in 2002. The opening passage (translated by Norman Kemp Smith to English in 1957) "is a helpful commentary on the argument of Articles 74-78" of The Passions of the Soul.

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