1658 Rare French Vellum Book - The Characteristics Of The Passions. Les Charactères Des Passions. Par le Sr. de la Chambre.
Author: CUREAU DE LA CHAMBRE, Marin.
Title: Les Charactères Des Passions. Par le Sr. de la Chambre. (Bound with volume II) -Où Il Est Traitté De La Nature Et Des Effets Des Passions Courageuses.
Language: Text in French.
Publisher: Amsterdam: Chez Antoine Michel [i.e. Elzevier].1658. Vol. [1 & 2]. (Complete 2 books bound in one).
Size : 5.5 " X 3.5 ".
Pages: 599 pages.
Binding: Very good full vellum binding (hinges tight, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a removable protective mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare foxing and staining - as shown, small exlibris on the first endpaper - as shown).
Illustrations: Including the very nice illustrated title page.
Estimate : (USD 300 - USD 500)
The book: Scarce 17th-century edition o[ this book where le Sr. de la Chambre wants to examine the Passions, the Virtues & Vices, the Mores and the Customs of the Peoples, the various Inclinations of Men, their Temperaments, the Traicts of their face; in a word where he claims to put together what Medicine, Morals and Politics have of rarest and most excellent».
The author: Marin Cureau de la Chambre (1594 – 29 December 1669) was a French physician and philosopher born in Saint-Jean-d'Assé, a village near Le Mans.
Details of his youth and where he attended school are unknown. He was initially a physician in Le Mans, and around 1630 moved to Paris, where he became a friend and physician to Pierre Séguier (1588–1672). Afterwards, he was a médecin ordinaire to Louis XIV. Reportedly the monarch was impressed by Cureau de la Chambre's ability to judge human character based on physical appearance. Marin Cureau de la Chambre is largely known for his work in physiognomy. Between 1640 and 1662 he published a five-volume study on mans' character and "passions" called Caractères des passions. He wrote articles on many other topics, including palmistry, digestion, "reasoning" in animals, occult practices and optics. On the latter subject, he investigated the nature of light and color, refractions, and the possibility of primary and secondary colors. He was the author of books on philosophy and published a translation of Aristotle's Physica.
In 1634 he became an early member of the Académie française, and in 1666 was an original member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was the father of clergyman Pierre Cureau de la Chambre (1640–1693). He died in Paris on December 29, 1669.
In 1991 astronomer Eric Walter Elst named the asteroid 7126 Cureau after Marin Cureau de la Chambre.