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DESARGUES ON PERSPECTIVE ONLY TWO OTHER COPIES KNOWN. First and only edition, incredibly rare, of the last (surviving) contribution published by the brilliant French mathematician Girard Desargues in the notorious perspective wars Desargues was "the greatest perspectivist and projective geometer of his generation" (Kemp, The Science of Art, p. 120). Desargues published his works in very small editions, mostly for his friends and scientific colleagues. Today more than half of them are lost, and the survivors are of the greatest rarity, most known in just one or two copies. Desargues bio-bibliographer Poudra believed the Six erreurs to be lost, but two other copies are known today, both in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is likely that our copy of Six erreurs is the only work published by Desargues now in private hands. We know of no copy of any original work of Desargues having appeared on the market for at least a century. In 1636 Desargues (1591-1661), published Exemple de l'une des manières universelles . . . touchant la pratique de la perspective, describing a universal technique which, he claimed, subsumed all previous methods of perspective drawing. Although this work appears not to have excited a great deal of interest among practitioners, "Descartes and Fermat, to whom Mersenne had communicated it, were able to discern Desargues s ability" (DSB). "Through his own efforts as a polemicist and with the conspicuous assistance of Abraham Bosse in the [Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture], the Manière became the centre of a noisily prominent controversy … The immediate cause was the publication of Perspective pratique … by a Jesuit of Paris (actually Jean Dubreuil). This was a substantial, effective, and not overly technical introduction for artists, which imprudently contained a bowdlerised version of Desargues' Manière. The mathematician s response was immediate. He issued two hand bills [both now lost] accusing the anonymous author of incredible error and enormous mistakes and falsehoods. Dubreuil s answer, in a pamphlet entitled Diverses méthodes universelles …, was to accuse Desargues of having plagiarized the ideas of Vaulezard and Aleaume (which does not appear to have been the case). The Jesuit s publishers also issued a collected edition of anti-Desargues pamphlets under the ironic title Avis charitables sur les diverses oeuvres et feuilles volantes du Sieur Girard Desargues. Desargues replied with pamphlets devoted to Six errors in Pages 87, 118, 124, 128, 132, and 134 in the Book Entitled the Perspective Pratique … [the offered work] and a Response to the Sources and Means of Opposition … [the latter now lost]. Such terms as imbecility and mediocrity were used with undisguised venom by both parties" (Kemp, pp. 120 & 122). The dispute continued until 1679, drawing in other mathematicians and practitioners, notably Desargues supporter Bosse and his opponents Jean Beaugrand and Jacques Curabelle. It cannot be said that Desargues prevailed, at least initially. Dubreuil s practical perspective was popular until the 18th century; in England his book became known as the Jesuit perspective . Desargues was far ahead of his time and it was not until the 19th century that the importance of his work was fully understood. Our copy of the Six erreurs is bound after the first edition of the first volume of Dubreuil s La perspective practique, which includes the Diverses méthodes universelles and Advis charitables. This is accompanied by the third edition of the second and third volumes (despite the seconde édition on their titles another edition appeared in 1663). Provenance: François du Verdus (1621-75) (signature on title of Dubreuil, Du Verdus ). Du Verdus was a student of Gilles Personne de Roberval (1602-75). Based upon Roberval s lectures, in 1643 Du Verdus wrote Observations sur la composition des mouvemens, et sur le moyen de trouver les touchantes des lignes courbes (first pub. Seller Inventory # 5918
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