Translator's Preface

The World and Treatise on Man are two parts of a work which Descartes wrote in French during the years 1629–33, and which the condemnation of Galileo by the Roman Inquisition caused him not to publish. They were published posthumously.

The World first appeared at Paris in 1664, under the title Le Monde de M. Descartes ou le Traité de la LumiÈre. But this edition was based only on a copy of the original manuscript, and in 1677 Clerselier produced a version based on the original. The Treatise on Man was published at Paris in 1664 under the title L'Homme de René Descartes, again edited by Clerselier and based on the original manuscript (a Latin translation based on a copy of the original having appeared at Leiden in 1662).

Although published separately, the works are part of a single treatise. In this treatise, Descartes tells Mersenne in November 1629, ‘instead of explaining only one phenomenon, I have resolved to explain all the phenomena of nature, i.e. all of physics’. And on 22 July 1633 Descartes announced to Mersenne that his treatise was almost finished, needing only to be corrected and recopied. While revising the work, however, Descartes learned that the Church had condemned Galileo for publishing his views about the motion of the earth, and in November 1633 he informed Mersenne that he had decided not to publish the treatise.