(DANIEL, GABRIEL). - AN IMAGINARY TRAVEL IN THE CARTESIAN WORLD.

Iter per Mundum Cartesii (and) Novae Difficultates a Peripatetico Propositae Auctori Iteneris per Mundum Cartesii Circa cognitionem Brutorum. Cum Refutatione duplicis defensionis Systematis Mundi Cartesii. (2 vols).

Amsterdam, Abraham Wolfgang, 1694. Uncut in contemp. blank boards. Title handwritten on spine. Spine a little rubbed. (22),307 pp. and (8),159 pp. Textillustrations in woodcut illustrating Cartesian physics and world system. A large copy, few marginal brownspots. Previous owners name on fly-leaf, Vilhelm Maar, Danish historian of medicine.

First Latin edition (The French original from 1690 Voyage du Monde de Descartes) of this imaginary travel to find Descartes on the moon and in the upper spheres. The work is one of the most importent anti-Cartesian polemics of the 1690's and it attacs the whole of Descartes system in a satirical way.
"It aimes principally at the sharp Cartesian distinction between body and soul, related in a satirical fashion the voyage of the disembodied souls of the narrator, of Mersanne, and of another old friend of Descartes in the upper spheres. On their way to visit Descartes in the third heaven, they meet the souls of Aristotle and the disciples of descartes (clearly refelcting here the philosophical opinions of Gabriel Daniel himself). One of the articles of that treaty stipulates that the Cartesians will refer to Aristotle with more respect, whereas the Aristotelians will refrain from calling Descartes "Enthusiast", "Madman", "Heretick" or "Atheist" - all of these evidently labels commonly used by the opponents of Descartes at that time." (Michael Heyd in "Be Sober and Reasonable"). The work was published anonymous and earlier sometimes attributed to Daniel Defoe. -

Order-nr.: 36324